{"id":672,"date":"2025-04-28T15:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T15:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.candoifp.com\/blog\/?p=672"},"modified":"2025-04-28T15:14:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T15:14:37","slug":"itm-whats-my-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.candoifp.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/28\/itm-whats-my-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"ITM: What’s My Responsibility?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Eddie Jett<\/p>\n

I get asked many questions about inspections, testing, maintenance (ITM) and repairs of water-based fire sprinkler systems in regard to who\u2019s responsibility it is. Is it our responsibility as the fire protection contractor, or is it the responsibility of the owner or owners representative? Are you ready for your answer?\u00a0 Yes, and Yes!!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, lets talk about the relationship between the contractor and the owner. The owner is required by law to have inspections, testing and maintenance (ITM) performed of their fire sprinkler system. This is required and enforced by national, state, local AHJ\u2019s, insurance companies, JHCO, etc…. As a contractor, we agree upon a price for the inspection, possibly create a contract, schedule a time for the inspection and then perform the inspection. At the conclusion of the inspection we, as the contractor, will go over the report with the customer and inform them of any deficiencies that we discovered (and can support with NFPA 25) during the inspection and testing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

CONTRACTORS<\/b><\/h2>\n

To the contractors reading this, I want to highlight a couple of words in that last paragraph; <\/span>Inform and Enforce<\/span><\/i>. I was recently at a fire sprinkler continuing education meeting and the instructor, who is well known in the fire sprinkler industry, said something that really stuck with me. He made the comment \u201cWe are informers, not enforcers.\u201d Let that sink in. That\u2019s a very strong, and very true statement!\u00a0 As the inspection contractor, because NFPA 25 is the law for ITM, our job is to inform the customer of the requirements of NFPA 25. We do not have the authority to enforce anything! Now I know what many of you are thinking, we hang color coded tags that essentially forces the owner to repair\/fix a deficiency in order to get the proper \u201call good\u201d tag. You\u2019re correct but remember, the color-coded tagging system is adopted and enforced by your state or local AHJ, not us as contractors. The same applies for an AHJ that requires all contractors doing inspections within their jurisdiction to upload all of the completed reports to a third-party company for their enforcement purposes of the deficiencies. This is a requirement that the AHJ has <\/span>enforced<\/span> the contractor to comply with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say that you take your car to a mechanic. You pay the mechanic to inspect your car and to give you a report of what is wrong. He gives you a lengthy report of deficiencies but then proceeds to tell you that he is holding your car hostage until you pay to fix all of the reported problems. I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019d be pretty angry at the mechanic. I paid for an inspection and now I\u2019m being held hostage? WTH!? Whose ultimate responsibility is the car? Mine, or the mechanic? Mine, I\u2019m the owner! Whether I fix the car or not is on me, not the mechanic. The same principle applies when we talk about water-based ITM. The owner is paying the contractor for an inspection and expects not to be held hostage by the contractor at the conclusion of the inspection. Now that\u2019s not to say that we cannot give the owner a quote to repair any deficiencies but the ultimate responsibility for the repairs falls on the owner. Our only job as contractors is to inform the customer of the deficiencies. The AHJ has the final authority to demand the deficiencies be corrected, not us.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what is your responsibility as the contractor? INFORM. Plain and simple. That\u2019s it. Do it with confidence and integrity and stay in your lane. Do it in accordance with NFPA 25 and <\/span>do not<\/span> step outside of the scope of the standard. If the deficiency cannot be substantiated within NFPA 25, it needs to be written as an observation, not a deficiency. Stepping outside of the scope of NFPA 25 can render you and your company in a liability situation and nobody wants that. Remember, \u201cwe are informers, not enforcers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

OWNERS<\/b><\/h2>\n

Now to the system owners reading this. NFPA 25 was created for you. Essentially, it is your owner\u2019s manual for your water-based fire sprinkler system. It is the law when it comes to water-based fire protection systems ITM and your obligation is to follow the law. If you have not, I highly recommend that you fully read chapters 4 and 15 of NFPA 25. Both of these chapters are important to you as the owner or owners representative. Here are a few items from chapter 4 that <\/span>YOU<\/i><\/b> as the owner are responsible for:<\/span><\/p>\n