Mom in MC has pulled fire alarm. They are threatening to eviction if we do not pay the fine What are my options?

100% Negligence on their part.

Tell them no, and smile sweetly as you tell them be happy to talk to the higher-ups about it.

I would ask, since it happened before, what have they done to prevent it happening again. Like said, there must be a safety cover that a staff member can use but hard for the resident. The knob cover I used for Mom was a matter if squeezing it a certain way to open the door. But for Mom the cover just went around and around.

Pay the fine but I may write cooperate a letter.

“Director at MC says it's corporate telling him what he has to do’” Fair enough, so the need is to get to the Corporate Management, the step above the Director at this particular MC. Of course Corporate Management is going to say ‘yes, you must have fire alarms’, and they probably have no idea that this problem is happening. Check out Grandma’s post about ‘pull station covers’ and the suggestions for high placement, and refer to the options when you go to Corporate Management. Obviously it would be tactful to copy your letter to the local Director – you are ‘helping them’, not ‘going behind their back’. If you can do it easily, if you don't get a good response it might help to follow up your letter with something similar coming from a legal firm or a government agency.

One extra point – it did occur to me that turnover is often profitable in a facility. There are extra fees at the change point, plus a chance to get rid of difficult residents. It may be worth considering if this is actually a deliberate strategy to ‘push the business on’.

I would assume someone in memory care is not competent to know right from wrong on this. Isn't it their job to be watching this person? How was she left to her own devises for so long that she was able to do this?

Hi moefenn - well, since you stated that others have been evicted for this too, I would suggest treading very lightly because you wouldn't want something like this to become a bigger issue for you.

If you can, you can try to meet (or speak) with the Director of the facility - ask what type of safeguards will be put into place to prevent this from occurring again - especially in light of this happening previously. It's also the responsibility of the facility to implement something that lessens this from reoccurring.

What is the expense of this penalty? Perhaps since it's your mother's first offense, can they either take a pass on this instance or can you offer to pay half? You can also try to reach out to the corporate office to discuss.

You said that you spoke to the Fire Marshall - what did they say about it? If all else fails, you may want to just the penalty to avoid future issues.

I think that they are at least 50% responsible, what can be expected when people with broken brains are being housed?

They were aware of this issue and did nothing about it, they thus accepted the risk.

I would negotiate with them, offer to pay 1/4 and go from there, line up your thoughts send them a registered letter explaining your reasoning. Always play into their weak area, which is that this has happened before.

We had shared thermostats covered in all the office buildings I managed. Fire alarms being covered have legal/safety issues.

In a MC facility, they should be placed higher, or covered and locked, with several keys that staff would have handy. The facility's reasoning behind this is a "false alarm" costs them around $600-$1,000 fine. It's not cheap to roll a fire engine/crew out on full alarm status, to do their job.

If this is the first time she pulled it, they should bill you penalty fee. The next few times it will double. A (false) Fire Alarm is not a funny prank, expensive and takes the crew away from a REAL fire. They have to pay plenty to have those alarms inspected annually as well.

Corporate concerns are always about money.

I think there are safety covers that can go over the alarm, one that adults can get to but kids and some elders might have a problem with.
Google "Pull Station covers"
Grainger has quite a few.,
They protect but do not restrict use.
I think if a person with dementia saw the cover and tried to pull the alarm they would not have the understanding on how to get to the alarm through the cover.

How many times has this happened?

I have honestly never heard of such a thing. Seems exceptionally odd to me, and I can't imagine there isn't more to this. Pretty awful corporate practice. I would ask for this in writing along with their "reason" for eviction. Once I had it I would wave it at the admin and tell him or her you intend to make them famous, or perhaps "infamous" would be a better word.