Security and the Limits of an Association’s Responsibility
Jacqueline D. Foster, Esq. Fiore, Racobs & Powers, A PLC
“Burglars are climbing in the window! The kitchen is on fire! Quick, call the community association manager!”
It should come as no surprise that a community association manager is not equipped to chase away burglars or put out fi res, nor is that the role of an association. Community associations do a lot to enhance the quality of life for their owners and residents by maintaining common areas, offering recreational amenities, enforcing architectural standards, and establishing rules. Owners want to feel safe in their homes and living in access-controlled communities can provide a sense of safety. Gated, that is access-controlled, communities must necessarily determine who may enter at the gates. Technological advances offer ways to control and monitor vehicle access and to view common areas remotely, and these can lead owners to feel safer in their homes. It may seem that these efforts are actually intended to prevent or deter crime directed at residents, but are they? And should they be?
Access controls and surveillance technologies may lead to a sense of “security,” but boards and managers are well advised to consider whether their associations may, or should, offer “security” to their owners (and residents) and what “security” really means. If providing security means deterring
12 September | October 2025
crime, association leaders should consider whether their association should undertake to do so and whether owners and residents are justifi ed in presuming the association provides this sort of protection.
An association’s powers and duties are described in, and limited by, their governing documents. Statutes like the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act also address the duties of community associations; and associations, like anyone else who controls real property, have the duty to use ordinary care in maintaining property, and to do so in a way that is not negligent.
Most governing documents detail the powers and duties of the association, usually in both the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) and the Bylaws. The Articles of Incorporation often set forth a very
general
statement of corporate purposes. CC&Rs typically provide that associations have the duty to maintain common area (as does Civil Code Section 4775), that they may hire and pay managers and vendors, that they must approve architectural modifi cations, and that they may or must establish and enforce rules.
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