Perimeter & common areas
Fence lines, entrances and shared spaces, watched remotely.
The gate
Visitors answered and let in when the gatehouse is empty.
Virtual doorman
For communities with a front door or lobby to answer.
Insurance per community
Each community named separately as additional insured.
What we watch
Most of what we do for communities is perimeter and common-area monitoring.
The edge of the community
- Perimeter fence and wall lines
- Vehicle and pedestrian entrances
- The gate and the gatehouse approach
The shared spaces inside it
- Clubhouse and amenity buildings
- Pool, fitness center and courts
- Common grounds and streets
Which of these your community has, what your cameras already cover and which hours need watching is what the monitoring plan sets out.
The gate after the gatehouse closes
A board can split the gate into shifts. One Port St. Lucie, Florida residents association did this in its 2021 security RFP: a gatehouse staffed from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., plus an optional virtual guard system overnight, which the RFP said:
“will eliminate in-person security guards from 11 PM to 7 AM.”
Remote gate handling is that overnight shift. A visitor pulls up, we speak with them, check that their entry is approved and open the gate. The same RFP still kept a roving patrol for the streets, clubhouse and pool, and remote gate handling doesn’t replace one.
At a front door instead of a gate
Some communities have a lobby or front door rather than, or as well as, a gate. For those, we run a virtual doorman: the door is answered remotely instead of from a staffed desk. The plan says which your community needs: the gate, the door or neither.
Gatehouse guard, roving patrol, or remote monitoring
A guard in the gatehouse
A person at the gate for the hours the contract pays for. The post covers the gate.
A roving patrol
People who drive the streets and check the clubhouse, pool and perimeter on a round.
Remote monitoring
The perimeter and common areas watched through the community’s cameras, and the gate answered remotely when the gatehouse is empty. Some communities will want it alongside a guard or a patrol rather than instead of one. The plan will say which.
If the board is weighing guards, ask your insurance broker how the policy treats them. One community association insurance program’s appetite guide lists armed security as “not a match” and unarmed security as “proceed with caution.”
Insurance and the management company’s vendor file
Before a vendor works on an association’s property, the management company will usually want paperwork on file. The published requirements ask for things like a certificate of insurance with the association endorsed as additional insured, workers’ compensation, commercial auto, a W-9, the trade license the work calls for and a signed vendor agreement. Some management companies route vendors through a credentialing platform with an annual fee. None of it is specific to security.
On our certificate, each community is named separately as additional insured, unless the communities all sit under one LLC, which usually isn’t the case. Each management company sets its own limits and often gives them only on request, so ask your manager and include them with your request.
If your association is going out to bid
A security RFP can be written entirely around a guard company. The Port St. Lucie RFP asked bidders for a Florida security contractor license, licensed guards and their guard retention rates. Remote monitoring isn’t a guard service, so those questions don’t describe it. Whether your RFP leaves room for remote monitoring or a remote gate is up to your board and your manager. The monitoring plan gives them a written scope to look at while they decide.
Questions boards ask
Does an HOA have to put security cameras in common areas?
Not under these statutes, as their text stood in September 2026: Florida sections 718.113, 720.303 and 720.304, Texas Property Code section 202.023, and New Jersey sections 46:8B-14 and 46:8B-15. None of them requires an association to install cameras in common areas. Texas section 202.023 deals with owners’ cameras instead: a property owners’ association can’t stop an owner putting a security camera on their own property, and it can prohibit an owner’s camera anywhere else. That section doesn’t apply to condominiums. This is a summary of the statute text, not legal advice; your declaration and your association’s attorney govern what the board can do.
Do we need new cameras?
Not necessarily. The plan starts from the cameras the community already has and marks where coverage is missing. To try it yourself first, the free camera placement planner lets you place cameras on a satellite view of the community.
Who should ask for the plan, the board or the manager?
Either. The board makes the decision, and the management company often prepares the bid and handles vendors, so the plan is written for both to read.
Free · no site visit
Your community’s monitoring plan
We look at the community from satellite imagery and the list of cameras it already has. Then we write down what gets watched, from where and when, and how the gate or the door would be handled if you need that.
The quote comes as that plan, so the board is pricing a written scope for its own community. The plan is yours to keep whether or not you go further.
- Tell us about the community. Where it is, how the gate works and what cameras are up.
- We look at it remotely. From satellite imagery and your camera list.
- You get a coverage map. What the cameras see now, and where the gaps are.
- And a written monitoring plan. The perimeter, the common areas and the gate, with the price attached.
Request your community’s monitoring plan
Tell us where the community is, how the gate works today and what cameras are up. It’s free, and nobody needs to come out.