In the town of Stamford, Connecticut, the village is threatening to sue a car dealership, Carriage House so it can get it to pay $7,450 in fines for forty five false burglar alarms over the past six years. There was a grand total of thirty one property owners that got notices on January the fifteenth that were ordering payment for false alarm fines. They were told to pay the money within thirty days or face legal action.
The town is owed $74,375 in fines and this is the first time it has gotten so tough about collecting the money that is owed to them. Out of the thirty one people that received a notice, thirteen have resolved their cases.
Residences and businesses are permitted to have one false alarm a year without being penalized with a fine. The system goes like this: starting at fifty dollars for a second false alarm, one hundred for the third, one hundred and fifty for the fourth and two hundred dollars for each false alarm after, businesses are fined accordingly.
The town does not use a collection agency, or charge interest on unpaid fines, which might be why they are having trouble cutting down on the problem with false alarms. The owner of the car dealership fingered a faulty alarm system as the source of the problem and alleged that he would get to the bottom of the problem within a week, but this hasn’t happened.
The owner is planning to schedule a March hearing before the appeals board in order to fight the fines. Alleging that it was the fault of the alarm company, he said that he is trying to get the alarm company to pay off the debt. But he was not able to identify the alarm company, stating that it had changed ownership so he was not clear on the name.
For the sake of being fair, the town discounts false alarms that took place that might have been the fault of the alarm company. But for now, the owner of the car dealership remains in arrears.
Mallory McGuinness is employed by a debt collection company. She also writes stories on business and finance, the credit industry, and debt collection.
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