Halifax council to vote on motion to charge $300 ‘flat fee’ for false alarms

A Halifax fire truck is pictured. (Source: Emma Convey/CTV News Atlantic)

Halifax council will vote on a motion that recommends the municipality charge a $300 “flat fee” per false alarm instead of the current tiered system.

The staff report, which was submitted ahead of council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, calls for amendments to By-law B-400 (also known as the Respecting Burglary, Robbery and Fire Alarm Systems By-law), which was first implemented in 1999.

“The intent of the By-Law was to impose a level of accountability and responsibility on owners of alarm systems and recover some of the costs incurred by Police & Fire Services when responding to false alarms,” the report reads. “The fees are currently tiered based on the incidents of false alarms over a rolling 12-month period.”

The tiered system charges people $200 for the second false alarm offence, $300 for the third and $500 for each subsequent offence.

The report says the call for an amendment to the bylaw came from possible inequities for multi-tenant commercial properties.

“False alarms are billed at the Assessment Account Number (AAN) level and in the case of commercial properties, many tenants can have individual alarm systems associated with one AAN,” the report reads. “Commercial landlords generally pass along the cost of the false alarm to the respective tenant.

“This creates inequities as the current tiered fee structure will see a tenant charged at the top tier fee of $500 based on the fourth offense for the property, even if that individual tenant has not had a false alarm in the past 12 months.”

The report recommends charging $300 for false alarms at all commercial properties and residential properties with more than three units. Residential properties with three units or fewer would only be charged $50.

“Emergency services have concerns that residential property owners as defined herein will attempt to mitigate false alarm fees by rendering alarm systems inoperable,” the report reads. “This creates substantial risks to both property and lives. By limiting the false alarm fee for residences with three units or less to $50, there is a lower likelihood of property owners taking on such risks.”

The report says the current system can cause administrative headaches and collections issues.

“A successful appeal for one false alarm fee may result in a change to the amount of the fees issued for a subsequent false alarm before the appeal was finalized,” the report reads. “In this instance, staff sends out another invoice for the lower amount.

“This creates confusion for customers and can require a refund if the invoice billed at the higher tier was subsequently paid before the adjustment was made.”

The report recommends additional amendments to the bylaw to establish criteria for not issuing false alarm notices, including:

• alarms due to power interruption
• alarms due to water damage from flooding
• alarms due to detectors going off for burnt food, smoke or cooking (this would exclude improper use of cooking equipment like barbequing indoors)

The report notes the municipality made $1,379,500 from false alarms in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. If the changes to the bylaw are implemented, it estimates 6,200 false alarms will be billed for a total of $1,456,300 in 2026-2027.

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