HOAs and condo associations
A new owner registering at closing, a tenant a unit owner has leased to, a resident asking for fob access: ShieldID verifies the government ID, matches the live face and keeps a record, so your board and your property manager know who is actually on file.
The problem, in your words
Closings happen through lawyers, leases are filed by mail or email, and access requests come in from names on a spreadsheet. Three patterns come up again and again.
A registration form arrives with a photocopy or a photo of an ID. There is no reliable way for a property manager to tell, by eye, whether it belongs to the person named or whether it has been altered.
A unit owner leases to a tenant and files the lease; the association is asked to register someone it has never met, sometimes for fob or amenity access, without any way to confirm who that person actually is.
A remote or investor owner, a subletting arrangement, or an access dispute at the front desk: the association needs an answer about who is entitled to be there, and needs to be able to show its work later.
A worked example
Lakeview Towers Condominium Association is a fictional 180-unit building managed by a third-party property manager. A unit sale closes, and the new owner registers a tenant. Here is one registration, start to finish.
What matters most for this
Every check below runs on every verification, on every plan. None of it is an optional extra.
For governance and disputes
A verification without a record is just something someone remembers happening. Every action around a ShieldID verification is entered in an append-only Activity Ledger, enforced by the database: entries can be added, never edited or deleted, not by staff and not by us.
How it fits your building
Pick the one that matches how your corporation already registers owners and tenants.
Email a registration link ahead of move-in, or show a QR code at the front desk when a fob or amenity access is issued. No app install, and the front desk never needs a camera of its own.
One REST API for a property management platform's registration workflow: create a session, send the link, receive a signed webhook when the result is in. Sandbox sessions are never billed.
Most associations call the API from whatever system already tracks owners, tenants and access requests, a property management platform, an accounting system or a board portal, and drop the verification link into the same email the registration confirmation already goes out in.
Privacy and consent
This is background, not legal advice. What an HOA or condo association may collect, and for how long it must be kept, is set by your state's condominium and HOA law, your association's governing documents and applicable privacy law. Check with your own counsel before you set a policy.
How this compares
Categories, not vendor names. "Typical enterprise IDV" describes what we found across the identity-verification market broadly; your mileage will vary by vendor.
| Capability | ShieldID | Typical enterprise IDV | Manual checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirms the ID itself is genuine, not just a legible photocopy | Yes | Usually | No |
| Confirms the resident is the person in the photo, live | Yes | Usually | No |
| Works for an owner or tenant you will never meet at the office | Yes | Usually | No |
| Reads an unfamiliar or foreign document instead of refusing it outright | Yes | Rarely | Depends on staff |
| Leaves a searchable record for an AGM or access dispute | Yes | Not offered to the customer | A filing cabinet, maybe |
| Available in English and French | Yes | Depends on the vendor | Depends on staff |
Objections, answered
Straight answers, including where the answer is "check your own governing documents."
That depends on your state, your association's governing documents and how the requirement is applied. This is not legal advice, check your state's condominium and HOA law and your association's own counsel before you set a policy.
The check runs on the resident's own phone in a few minutes, on their own schedule, not queued at the management office. A QR code at the front desk works just as well as an emailed link.
A passport is read from its machine-readable zone regardless of issuing country, so an international owner is covered the same way as anyone else. A driver's license or state ID from any of the 57 US issuing jurisdictions is read field by field; a license issued outside the US is not supported yet.
The image is purged automatically on a short timer. Access to the verification record is logged in the Activity Ledger; per-image view logging is coming soon.
No. ShieldID verifies identity at registration; your management software or board portal stays the system of record for ownership, dues and governance. The API and hosted link are built to slot into whichever one you already use.
What you see
A new owner or tenant verifies from the registration link. The manager sees the fields read from the ID and a verdict for each check.
Questions
Try it before your next registration
Sandbox sessions are never billed. See the report your board or manager would actually receive.
Works alongside whatever management software your board already uses.