3.2 Qualifying Officers, Display, Records, and Advertising
Key Takeaways
- A corporation or LLC must operate under a qualifying individual with real, substantial, day-to-day control; if that qualifier ceases, written notice is due within 14 days, the firm may continue 60 days, and DOS may extend 120 days for good cause (195.1(h), 195.3, GBL §69-q(3)).
- 19 NYCRR 195.5 requires the license posted conspicuously at the principal location, a photocopy and the person-in-charge name at each secondary, a current secondary list at headquarters, and Attachment C filed by registered or certified mail within five business days of opening a secondary.
- 19 NYCRR 195.10 keeps transaction records three years and employee records until three full years after employment ends, longer during litigation or a DOS investigation, at a central location in New York State, with a written consumer statement of services and charges and identification of employees on each job.
- Advertisements must clearly and conspicuously display "Licensed by the N.Y.S. Department of State." (195.16); documents and receipts need the identification number and the license legend (195.17); trade names may not be confusingly similar (195.6).
- Employing security guards to respond and secure premises requires GBL Article 7 and Article 7-A credentials; a technician-only visit to check and service the alarm does not; the 195.19 $100,000 / $300,000 CGL certificate applies to businesses that employ security guards, not to every installer firm.
Licensing gets the firm in the door. Business-practice rules decide whether the firm stays there. The exam groups qualifying officers, license display, recordkeeping, advertising legends, the qualifier's duty of personal guidance, and the line between alarm technicians and security guards. OpenExamPrep teaches these as independent study of 19 NYCRR Part 195 and GBL §69-q, not as a claim that DOS reviewed this text.
Qualifying officer: 195.1(h), 195.3, and GBL §69-q(3)
A corporation or limited liability company does not "hold the knowledge" of the 81-hour course. A human qualifying officer does. The entity must be operated under the direction of at least one person who personally meets the licensing requirements.
| Entity type | Qualifying individual |
|---|---|
| Limited liability company (LLC) | At least one member or manager who meets licensing requirements |
| Corporation | A manager or managing officer who meets licensing requirements |
A corporate qualifier need not be a corporate officer. The president can be unlicensed if a managing officer who does meet the requirements actually runs the licensed work. The opposite error is more common in exam stories: a licensed technician is named on the application but has no real, substantial, day-to-day control — never schedules jobs, never reviews installations, never directs employees. Title without control fails. Control without meeting licensing requirements also fails. "Real, substantial, day-to-day" is the control test; a name on letterhead is not.
When the qualifier leaves
If the qualifier ceases to serve — quits, dies, is fired, or loses the individual ability to qualify — send written notice to the department within 14 days. The business may continue for 60 days. DOS may grant 120 additional days for good cause. After that runway, a new qualifier must be in place. Memory hook: 14 to tell DOS, 60 to keep the lights on, 120 more only if DOS agrees you have good cause. The 14-day clock is notice, not an extra month of silence. Do not wait until day 59 to mention that the only qualified person left in January.
Affirmative duty of personal guidance: 19 NYCRR 195.9
The qualifying license holder must give regular, frequent, and consistent personal guidance to the business and its employees. That is an affirmative duty — you must do it, not merely be available if someone calls. A qualifier who lives two states away, never visits, never trains, and never sees job files is not providing personal guidance. 195.9 is how the regulations attack the "rented license" model even before a customer is hurt. Regular means it happens as a habit; frequent means it is not annual; consistent means the same person who qualifies the license is actually directing the work, not a rotating relative who signs once.
Display and secondary locations: 19 NYCRR 195.5
| Place | Display / filing rule |
|---|---|
| Principal location | Post the license conspicuously; keep a current list of secondary locations at that office |
| Each secondary location | Post a photocopy of the license; post the name of the person in charge |
| Department of State | File each secondary by registered or certified mail within five business days of opening, using Application Attachment C |
The person in charge at a branch may be a manager who is not the qualifier, but the name must be posted. Opening a satellite shop and "getting around to" Attachment C next month misses the five-business-day filing. Use registered or certified mail so you have proof. Keep the secondary list at headquarters current; a stale list is its own 195.5 problem. The original license stays at the principal location; secondaries get photocopies, not a scavenger hunt for the only frame.
Records: 19 NYCRR 195.10
| What you keep | Minimum retention |
|---|---|
| Transaction records (the work and the money) | Three years |
| Employee records: statement, application, ID number, length of employment, payroll | Until three full years after employment ends |
| Either set, if litigation or a DOS investigation is open | Keep longer — do not purge |
Store New York-related records at a central location in New York State. A corporate headquarters in another state does not satisfy that in-state central-location rule for New York work.
For the customer, present a written statement of services and charges. Identify the employees who worked on each job. Sequential employment ID numbers from 195.15 and the names on 195.11 cards are how you make that identification real. "Someone from our company was there Tuesday" is not a 195.10 job record. Three years for transactions is measured as a running business file; employee files keep running until three full years after the person leaves, which is why a five-year technician's file is longer than a one-week helper's file.
Advertising, documents, and names: 195.16, 195.17, 195.6
195.16 — Every advertisement must clearly and conspicuously display "Licensed by the N.Y.S. Department of State." That includes vehicles, websites, directories, and flyers. A multi-state company may use a website landing-page statement so New York visitors see the legend without requiring every page of a national site to carry New York's sentence.
195.17 — Documents and receipts must contain the firm's identification number and "licensed by the N.Y.S. Department of State."
195.6 — Do not use a trade name confusingly similar to another licensee's name. "Empire Alarm" next door to "Empire Alarms LLC" is how you buy a name-conflict problem.
Write the required legend. Do not substitute "approved by DOS," "DOS certified," or language that sounds like a partnership with the State. Independent prep wording matters in real ads too: you are stating that you are licensed, not that DOS wrote your marketing.
Guards versus technicians: 195.18 and 195.19
If the alarm business employs security guards to respond and secure premises, Article 6-D is not enough. That response model requires a GBL Article 7 private investigator / watch, guard, or patrol agency license and Article 7-A security-guard registration for the people doing that work.
If a technician responds only to check and service the alarm, that technician-only visit does not by itself convert the company into a guard company.
195.19 requires commercial general liability insurance of $100,000 per occurrence / $300,000 aggregate, including coverages such as false arrest, for businesses that employ security guards. Do not treat that certificate as a universal alarm-installer filing. An installer firm that does not employ guards is not the 195.19 fact pattern.
Scenario
Alicia is the qualifying member of an LLC. She directs hiring, reviews fire-alarm records of completion, and is in the shop most days (195.9). The license is framed at the principal office next to a typed list of two satellite shops (195.5). Each satellite has a license photocopy and a "Person in charge" sign. When the second satellite opened, the firm mailed Attachment C by certified mail on day three. Ads on the vans and the website landing page say "Licensed by the N.Y.S. Department of State." Invoices carry the license identification number and the 195.17 legend. Job jackets name the technicians. Records live in a locked room in New York State, not in an out-of-state warehouse. The firm does not send guards; after-hours calls dispatch a technician to service the panel, so Article 7 / 7-A and 195.19 are not triggered. If Alicia left, the LLC would notify DOS in 14 days and would have 60 days (plus a possible 120) to put a new qualifier in genuine day-to-day control.
Exam mix-ups to refuse
- Treating a corporate officer title as a substitute for day-to-day control, or assuming a qualifier must be the president.
- Confusing the 14-day notice with the 60-day operating window, or inventing a year of operation with no qualifier.
- Posting the only original license at a branch and leaving headquarters bare.
- Filing secondaries by ordinary first-class mail next quarter instead of registered or certified mail within five business days.
- Printing "DOS approved" on ads, or telling every installer firm it must file the 195.19 guard-response insurance certificate.
If the qualifying officer of a licensed corporation ceases to serve, what is required?
19 NYCRR 195.16 requires advertisements to clearly and conspicuously display which statement?
A licensed alarm company dispatches a technician only to check and service an alarm after a signal. Which statement is correct?