Stolen Car with Security Present. ?? Liability??

Of all HOA nightmares this one just happened.

Our parking garage had a repair and replacement of a faulty gate. The gate had to be removed to be be replaced. Leaving our garage open and vulnerable.

Our management company hired a security company to man the gate, it was understood they were to positively ID all coming and going out of the gate..

CCTV is a god send. A resident claimed a car was stolen. It was... while the patroling security gaurd was indeed present he left his post about 20 minutes before the incident, it was seen he pulled his car outside the gate and parked it on the street.

A strange woman entered the garage gate.. carrying a black bag. ( not a handbag!! like a backpack) it was about 5 minutes later a young man walked in you can see him nervously looking everywhere including behind him as he entered. 2 minutes later the stolen car was driven out and the two individuals mentioned were NOT seen coming into the common area to enter their home via video.

I am pretty upset as most of the board members are. The resident has made it clear that he feels we are liable in one way or another and threatend to come to next board meeting. ( he is a renter so this can not happen anyway)

Where does the liability really lay? I say the management needs to act upon this incident with the security company.. it's easy to see on cctv what happened.
Advice? I know we are not legal eagles here, but since this is an HOA incident, I thought I'd put this out there for advice from you wonderful people.
thank you.

I think that's the key point here. Would the theft have occurred if the guard had remained at his post?

Obviously, the management company thought it was necessary to hire a security guard while the gate was not in place.

Sooooo - I can see several being named in a liability lawsuit: The association, the management company, the security company that employs the security guard, and the security guard himself.

The court will sort it all out.

I agree with Tim's approach. Let the insurance companies and police sort out guilt and liability. Interesting note about the security guard leaving his post at that time and for long enough for the car to be stolen. Maybe an inside job or just a coincidence....

There is no bailment created by having either a gate or a security guard. The car owner needs to file a claim with his own insurance carrier.

I have to wonder whether the car owner had theft insurance. Many insurance policies provide a rental car if the insured vehicle is stolen. If I were the owner of the stolen car, that would give me plenty of incentive to file a claim. But . . . if I had no theft insurance then I would be trying to blame someone else for the loss.

What is the possibility that this was a repo rather than a theft? People often rent housing because their credit does not allow them to purchase. The car owner was a renter. Could his car have come from one of those buy-here-pay-here places that will repossess a car in a heartbeat?

Fiona

Do not assume, judge, guess, anticipate, get the association into it. The answer is tell the car owner to turn to their insurance company as it is not a association issue. The let the chips fall as they will.

Not that I am correct about the final outcome but I do know what the first line of defense should be. No my responsibility.....LOL

That raises the question as to why at least two "car thieves" would target a 20-year-old junker instead of one of the newer vehicles in your parking area?

BTW, did anyone file a police report?

Possibly it was time for his break or he needed to relive himself.