Montgomery County Alarm Permit: Registration, Fees, and Renewal

Before your alarm system is activated in Montgomery County, Maryland, you must complete Montgomery County alarm permit registration with the False Alarm Reduction Section (FARS) of the county police department. The initial fee is $30 for a residential property and $60 for a commercial property, and each registration lasts two years. Renewal costs $20. Skipping registration adds a $100 surcharge to every false alarm response at your address, on top of the standard false alarm fee.¹²

Who Has to Register

Every alarm user in the county must register before the system goes into service, residential and commercial alike. The company installing or monitoring the system shares that duty: it must confirm your registration with FARS before activating the alarm and must collect your registration form and fee on your behalf.¹

If you own more than one location, each one needs its own registration and its own fee. In a multi-tenant building, every tenant with an alarm system registers individually.¹

Self-Monitored and DIY Systems

If you use something like Ring or Nest without a professional monitoring company, the county still expects you to register. Montgomery County’s MC311 resource states that users without an alarm or monitoring company can get registration information directly from FARS. The safe rule is to register any system capable of triggering a police dispatch, even one you manage yourself. Call FARS at 240-773-6300 if you’re unsure.

Fees and How Long the Permit Lasts

Fees are set by COMCOR 03A.00.01.03:

Residential initial registration: $30, nonrefundable
Non-residential (commercial) initial registration: $60, nonrefundable
Renewal, residential or commercial: $20

Each registration is valid for two years from the date of issue, not one year as some older sources suggest.¹

What the Application Asks For

The form asks for your full name, the street address of the property with the alarm, and your phone number. You also list the name and Maryland license number of the alarm company monitoring the system.¹ Include an emergency contact who can be reached at any hour; when a false alarm triggers a police response and nobody answers, everything gets harder.

Double-check the alarm company’s license number and contact details before you submit. Errors there cause avoidable processing delays.

How to Submit

You can register online through the FARS portal or submit a paper application by mail. Alarm companies are required to use either the FARS forms or the FARS online site.¹ Online submissions tend to move faster because the system validates entries before taking payment.

Once approved, FARS issues a registration number that your monitoring company keeps on file. That number links your property to the dispatch system. Without it, the alarm company should not request police dispatch to your address.³

Renewal, Changes, and Moving

FARS will try to notify you 30 days before your two-year registration expires. Miss the deadline and a delinquency notice goes to the address on your last registration.¹ Renewal is an updated application plus the $20 fee.

If a person or company listed on your registration becomes unable or unwilling to perform their required duties, you must file an amendment with FARS within 72 hours naming a replacement.¹ Switching monitoring companies or updating your contact information falls under that rule.

Registrations do not transfer between owners or locations. When a property changes hands, the existing registration is cancelled and the new owner obtains a fresh one. Both the alarm user and the alarm company are responsible for notifying FARS when there’s a change in ownership or a relocation.³ If you’re buying a home with an existing system, assume nothing carries over and register it yourself before monitoring is activated.

Why Registration Is Worth the Trouble

Montgomery County gives every registered alarm user one free false alarm per calendar year. After that, the fees escalate quickly. The second false alarm costs $25, the third $50, the fifth $100, and the tenth $400. Residential fees top out at $1,000 per incident starting with the fifteenth false alarm; commercial fees reach $4,000 per incident starting with the twentieth.²

If your registration has expired or you never registered, every one of those amounts gets a $100 surcharge added on top, starting with the very first response.² An unregistered system’s second false alarm costs $125 instead of $25.

Repeated false alarms bring more than fees. After the third false alarm in a calendar year, the county requires a licensed alarm company to inspect your system. At six in a calendar year, you must upgrade it. Failing to register, failing to pay false alarm fees, or failing to upgrade when required all put you in violation of the alarm law.⁴

For registration questions or to confirm your status, especially if you’re switching monitoring providers, call FARS at 240-773-6300.

1
American Legal Publishing. COMCOR 03A.00.01.03 Alarm User Registration
2
American Legal Publishing. COMCOR 03A.00.01.10 False Alarm Response Fees
3
Montgomery County Police Department. Burglary Alarm Customers
4
Montgomery County Police Department. Burglary Alarms Homepage