What your board needs to know about licensing, fine authority, towing, and contract terms before you sign a security guard agreement.
In Georgia, a licensed unarmed security guard working an HOA gate or patrol route can verify access, log visitors, walk common areas, and ask an unauthorized person to leave, but cannot issue a fine or have a car towed on their own authority. Guard companies are licensed and guards are trained and recorded under O.C.G.A. § 43-38-1 et seq. and § 43-38-7.1, while fines remain the association’s own power under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223 and towing requires a separately permitted towing company under O.C.G.A. § 44-1-13. A Georgia HOA board hiring guards is really hiring eyes, a gate, and a deterrent, not a private enforcement arm with citation or towing power.
Georgia regulates the guard company, not each individual unarmed guard, under O.C.G.A. § 43-38-1 et seq. (administered by the Georgia Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies). Armed guards must be individually licensed under § 43-38-7, while unarmed guards are not individually licensed but must complete board-prescribed training, with records kept by the company and fingerprints submitted for a background check under § 43-38-7.1. Before signing a contract, a board should ask to see the company’s agency license, proof of the guard’s training record, and the company’s general liability and workers’ compensation coverage.
A guard can check credentials or gate codes, patrol common areas, document violations, and tell a trespasser to leave; under O.C.G.A. § 16-7-21, a person who stays after being told to depart by the owner, a rightful occupant, or an authorized representative (which can include a guard acting on the association’s behalf) can be committing criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. A guard cannot levy a fine: under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223, fine authority belongs to the association “if and to the extent provided in the instrument,” meaning the board (or its manager) acting under the governing documents, not the guard on post. A guard also cannot order a tow directly; O.C.G.A. § 44-1-13 requires that a vehicle be removed from private property by a towing company that holds its own permit or license, acting at the request of the property owner or its authorized agent.
Spell out staffing coverage (hours, posts, backup coverage for call-outs) and require daily or shift incident logs delivered to the board or manager, not just verbal reports. Confirm the guard company’s liability insurance names the association as an additional insured, and set a minimum coverage amount your association’s attorney or insurance agent recommends. Include a short-notice termination clause (30 days or less) tied to performance, and require that the company immediately replace any guard who is removed for cause rather than leaving a post unfilled.
No. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-1-13, only a towing and storage company that holds its own permit or license from the local government or the state may remove a vehicle from private property, and it must act at the request of the property owner or an authorized agent. A guard can document the violation and notify that permitted towing company, but cannot personally order or perform the tow.
No. Fine authority in Georgia belongs to the property owners’ association itself, and only if the governing documents (the “instrument”) grant that power, per O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223. A guard can observe and report a violation, but issuing or assessing the fine is a board or management function carried out under the association’s own documents.
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