Out-of-State Fire Alarm Crew on a Bozeman Apartment Project

The problems

• Licensing in Montana attaches to two separate things: the contracting business and each individual doing the work. A license from another state does not transfer, and NICET certification is a technical credential, not a Montana electrical license.
• The company cannot legally contract for or perform this work without the appropriate Montana contractor license, and the workers need individual Montana credentials or registration, with the inexperienced worker functioning only as a supervised apprentice.
• The permit is a separate gate. Starting without it exposes the contractor and the general contractor to stop-work orders and inspection failures.

Before work starts

1. The firm obtains the correct Montana contractor license for the scope, and each worker's credential is verified and on site.
2. The electrical permit is pulled for the 120 V branch circuit, and the fire alarm plans, device calculations, and battery calculations go to the Fire Marshal for review.
3. The scope split is written down: who does the line-voltage circuit, who does the low-voltage wiring, and who makes the sprinkler flow switch connection.

If the answer from the Board or AHJ on any of these points is unclear, the correct move is to stop and get it in writing rather than energize Friday.

The response Energizing for construction convenience is not the same as a completed, inspected installation. If the panel is energized before the permit inspection and the Fire Marshal's acceptance, the building has a partial system that looks operational but has never been verified. That is worse than an obvious gap, because occupants and the general contractor will treat it as working protection.

Sequence I would insist on

1. Rough-in inspection of the 120 V circuit and the wiring before concealment by drywall. This is exactly the inspection that drywall schedules are designed around; skipping it means the work gets covered and cannot be verified.
2. Once drywall is closed, device installation, then pretesting by the contractor, then acceptance testing witnessed by the AHJ.
3. Only after acceptance does the panel go into normal service, with the record of completion signed.

Who signs The qualified individual employed by the licensed contractor signs the record of completion and the test records; the AHJ accepts the system. The NICET certificate holder can sign technical documents within their certification scope, but that signature does not substitute for the contractor license or the permit.

This is a scope and liability question more than a technical one, and the answer should be settled in writing before anyone touches the pipe.

Practical split

• The sprinkler contractor owns the piping and the installation of the flow switch and valve tamper devices, because those are part of the sprinkler system and are covered by that contractor's scope and the sprinkler permit.
• The alarm contractor typically terminates the switch, runs the monitoring wiring back to the panel, programs the point, and tests the signal to the supervising station. Some contracts invert this; what matters is that one party is clearly responsible for each step and that both are licensed for what they do.
• Whoever makes the connection must not leave the sprinkler system impaired without following the impairment procedure: notify the building owner and AHJ, tag the valve, and restore as soon as possible.

Documentation Record the split on the drawings and in the subcontract, and confirm the Fire Marshal's expectation for who witnesses the flow switch test. A flow switch that trips but is not programmed, or is programmed but not tested, is a common acceptance failure and the argument about whose scope it was does not fix it after the fact.