What your board needs to know about licensing, fine authority, towing, and contract terms before you sign a security guard agreement.
In Kentucky, HOA security guards are private personnel hired under contract to patrol common areas, staff gates, and monitor access, not sworn peace officers. Kentucky has no single statewide license for private security guards; armed officers are licensed locally, most notably under Louisville/Jefferson County’s Armed Security Officers ordinance, and must separately hold a Kentucky concealed deadly weapon license. A board’s security contract and CC&Rs, not a state guard-licensing statute, define what the officer can actually enforce on the property.
Kentucky does not operate a statewide licensing board for private security guard companies or unarmed guards. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Code Chapter 124 requires agencies to hold a Metro license, companies to register, and individual armed officers to hold a personal license, renewed annually, with the agency and company also carrying minimum liability insurance. That ordinance applies only within Jefferson County; HOAs elsewhere in Kentucky should confirm directly with their local government whether an equivalent licensing ordinance exists.
Kentucky’s Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785-381.801), effective June 2023, governs single-family subdivision HOAs that have a mandatory association, covering board authority, meetings, assessments, liens, and records; it does not hand the board a separate statutory power to have a guard write tickets or levy fines independent of the CC&Rs. Fines still require the written notice and hearing opportunity set out in KRS 381.797(2) before they can be charged, and guard-issued parking or towing enforcement is only as valid as what the recorded declaration and rules actually authorize.
Before signing, confirm the guard company’s Kentucky-based officers hold any applicable local license and, if armed, a valid KRS 237.110 CCDW, and ask for proof of liability coverage in the range local ordinances already require of armed officers. Require written incident-reporting procedures, a defined post/patrol staffing ratio tied to gate hours and property size, and a contract with a short-notice termination clause. Make clear in the contract that enforcement actions must track the recorded CC&Rs and the KRS 381.797(2) notice-and-hearing process.
Not under any single statewide law. Kentucky has no general state license for private security guards or guard companies; licensing exists only where a local government has adopted its own ordinance, such as Louisville/Jefferson County’s Chapter 124 for armed officers. Boards outside Jefferson County should ask the vendor directly what, if any, local licensing applies.
Only to the extent the recorded CC&Rs and association rules actually grant that authority, and any fine still must follow the written notice-and-hearing process in KRS 381.797(2). For a person who does not belong on the property, a guard’s practical tool is documenting a trespass warning and calling law enforcement.
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