Can an HOA charge you for a security guard or courtesy patrol?
By OurHOA · General information · Revised
If patrol service is a common expense under your declaration, it is funded through regular dues and no owner can opt out. Budget caps and liability rules still apply.
The short answer
In most communities, yes, but as part of your regular assessment rather than as a separate bill. If the declaration authorizes the association to provide services for the common areas, or lists security or patrol among the common expenses, the board can contract for it, put it in the budget, and collect it through dues like landscaping or trash service. What a board generally cannot do without specific authority in the governing documents is invent an a la carte charge, billing only the owners who wanted the service or who live on the patrolled street. Absent that authority, the cost is a common expense divided by whatever formula the declaration sets. Our guide on how HOA dues are calculated or divided among owners covers those allocation formulas and when they can be changed.
Why you cannot opt out
Common expenses are not subscriptions. An owner who never uses the pool still pays for the pool, and an owner who thinks a courtesy patrol is a waste of money still pays for the patrol, because the obligation runs with the lot and is fixed by the declaration rather than by use. The arguments that actually work are made before the budget is adopted, not after the invoice arrives: attend the budget meeting, ask what the contract costs per home per month, ask what the association gets for it, and ask what was cut to pay for it. Refusing to pay the portion of dues attributable to a line item you dislike is not a recognized defense, and it exposes you to late fees, collection costs, and eventually a lien.
When adding patrol needs more than a board vote
A board's budget authority is not unlimited. Several states cap what a board can do to assessments on its own. California Civil Code section 5605(b) bars a board from raising regular assessments more than 20 percent above the prior fiscal year, or imposing special assessments that in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of budgeted gross expenses, without approval of the members. Arizona Revised Statutes section 33-1803(A) provides that a planned community association shall not impose a regular assessment more than 20 percent greater than the immediately preceding fiscal year's assessment without the approval of a majority of the members. Building something for the patrol, such as a gatehouse or guard booth, is a separate question again: that is a capital improvement to the common area, and many declarations require a member vote above a dollar threshold before the association can build it. Check the improvement clause before the board signs anything.
Hiring a patrol changes what the association owes residents
This is the part boards underestimate. Taking on a security function can create a duty to perform it with reasonable care. In Frances T. v. Village Green Owners Association (1986) 42 Cal.3d 490, the California Supreme Court held that a condominium association owes residents duties comparable to those a landlord owes tenants, which depending on the circumstances can include investigating criminal activity in and around the community and taking appropriate safety measures. That case arose from common area lighting, not a guard contract, but the principle travels: a community that markets itself as patrolled and secure, then lets the contract lapse or lets the guard post go unstaffed, is in a worse position than one that never promised anything. Keep the association's language factual, define the scope of service in writing, and confirm with your insurance agent that both the general liability policy and the directors and officers policy cover the activity you are adding.
Before the board signs the contract
Get competing bids, and in some states you must. Florida Statutes section 720.3055 requires an association to obtain competitive bids for contracts requiring payment above 10 percent of the total annual budget including reserves, subject to exceptions, and does not require taking the lowest bid. Verify that the firm holds the license its state requires for private security work and that individual officers hold whatever registration or guard card applies, and get certificates of insurance naming the association as an additional insured. Then write down the scope in plain terms, because a courtesy patrol is not a police force: officers can observe, document, and call law enforcement, but they generally cannot detain residents, enter units, or enforce state traffic law on private streets. Specify patrol hours, what gets logged, who receives incident reports, how complaints are handled, and how either side terminates. A community that budgets for a service it cannot describe is usually paying for a car that drives through twice a night.
Keep the paperwork where owners can find it
Most fights about a patrol line item are really fights about visibility: owners see a number on the budget and have never seen the contract, the bids, or a single incident log. Publishing those three things settles the question faster than any amount of discussion at an annual meeting.
Sources
These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.