Local Licensing

Despite the enormous work associated with local licensing, it is important not to overlook these requirements. Gaps in compliance lead to increased business risks.

Local licensing authorities are adept at detecting unlicensed activity and generating fines. In fact, fines from local agencies can become a significant burden for many companies. Among other methods, regulatory agencies will often utilize alarm user permits or dispatch requests to identify unlicensed activity.

To make matters worse, more and more jurisdictions are now refusing to respond to dispatch requests for non-permitted systems, creating security gaps for your customers.

In addition to state license requirements, many cities and counties have their own license and registration requirements as well

These include business licenses, alarm company registrations, contractor registrations and low voltage licenses.

Even if you have no physical presence in a jurisdiction, you may be required to obtain a local license if revenue is being derived from customers located there.  With over 90,000 local jurisdictions, it’s extremely time-consuming to stay on top of all the requirements, taking you away from other important business priorities.

Have you ever received a letter or email from a municipal agency requesting that you submit a license application and wondered… wouldn’t it be nice to have a resource you could turn to with questions. You might want to know:

Is this license really needed for the type of work we’re doing?
Is the license still required even if our company has no physical presence in this jurisdiction?
Do I have to pay a fine? Under what conditions might the jurisdiction be willing to waive the fine?
Can the license fee be prorated if we aren’t applying at the beginning of the license period?
How often does the license need to be renewed? What are the fees?
Is a background check, experience or test required to obtain the license?

When you partner with CMS, you have on-demand access for all your licensing related questions! A trusted expert via phone or email to help you navigate the ever-changing regulations and laws. In some states, like Colorado for example, alarm companies are not regulated under a state licensing board. In these states, alarm companies will often find local municipalities have requirements and multiple licenses may be required depending on your business model. Believe it or not, there are a handful of states that do not regulate the burglar alarm industry through a state regulatory agency; this is where you will find more prevalent local license requirements.