Apartment Building Security Guards: What Hamilton Landlords Get for the Cost

A landlord usually starts pricing apartment building security guards after a bad month: a break-in at the mailboxes, strangers sleeping in a stairwell, or a tenant who no longer feels safe walking in from the parking lot. The first quote often comes as a surprise. After all, security companies bill by the hour, and a building needs a lot of hours.

This guide is for owners and property managers of rental buildings in Hamilton. It sets out what a guard actually does on a residential shift, what different schedules cost, where that money goes, and what Hamilton’s new Safe Apartment Buildings By-law and Ontario’s tenancy law mean for security in a rental building.

The short answer

In Ontario, unarmed apartment building security guards typically cost about $28 to $45 an hour. An overnight guard seven nights a week comes to roughly $6,800 to $10,900 a month. For that money, you get a licensed person on site when trouble happens. You also get a written report every shift and a faster answer when tenants report a security problem.

What apartment building security guards do on a shift

A rental building is not a warehouse. For one thing, the people the guard protects live there. As a result, most of the job is quiet, repetitive and visible. A typical evening or overnight shift includes:

• A walk through the parking lot and entrances while tenants are coming home, which is when most people feel exposed.
• Checking that entrance, garage and stairwell doors close and lock, and logging any that do not so maintenance can fix them.
• Clearing people who do not live there out of lobbies, stairwells, laundry rooms and storage areas.
• Attending noise complaints and writing down what was heard, when, and from which unit.
• Checking visitor parking and recording vehicles that should not be there.
• A report to the property manager at the end of the shift, with times and photographs.

In fact, that report is a large part of what you are paying for. A complaint file with dates and photographs is what lets you act on a problem tenant, a broken door or a recurring trespasser. A verbal “it was quiet” gives you nothing.

What apartment building security guards cost

Our published range for residential posts is $28 to $45 an hour. Overnight, weekend and holiday hours sit higher in the range, because the guard earns more for them. For example, here is how the common schedules work out at that range, using 4.33 weeks to a month:

• Weekend nights only (Friday and Saturday, 10 hours each, 20 hours a week): about $560 to $900 a week, or $2,400 to $3,900 a month.
• Every night (10 p.m. to 6 a.m., 56 hours a week): about $1,570 to $2,520 a week, or $6,800 to $10,900 a month.
• Around the clock (168 hours a week): about $4,700 to $7,560 a week, or $20,400 to $32,700 a month.

However, most rental buildings do not need a guard around the clock. Instead, the usual pattern is a post on the nights trouble happens, sometimes only on weekends, with the schedule cut back once things settle. Also, if you own several smaller buildings, mobile patrol visits are often the cheaper choice. One officer checks each address a few times a night instead of standing at one door.

Where the hourly rate goes

The guard does not take home $28 to $45 an hour. Ontario’s general minimum wage rose to $17.95 an hour on October 1, 2026, and an experienced guard earns more than that. On top of the wage, the hourly rate has to cover:

• Vacation pay, public holiday pay and the employer’s share of CPP and EI.
• WSIB coverage, so an injury on your property is not your claim to deal with.
• General liability insurance for the agency.
• Licensing, training, uniforms and the radio or phone the guard carries.
• A supervisor who checks the post and a dispatcher who answers at 3 a.m.
• Cover when the regular guard is sick, so someone is always on the post.

For this reason, a quote far below the range should worry you. The company is usually leaving something out, such as insurance, WSIB or supervision. When that goes wrong, the owner ends up paying.

Hamilton’s Safe Apartment Buildings By-law

Hamilton’s Safe Apartment Buildings By-law 24-054 came into effect on January 1, 2026. It applies to rental buildings with two or more storeys and six or more rental units that share at least one common area. Owners must register each building every year, and for 2026 the fee is $60 plus HST per unit. The by-law does not require apartment building security guards. Even so, several parts of it touch security directly:

• The registration form asks for the building’s existing security features, including locking systems, cameras and security services (section 10).
• A tenant report of a breach of security in a unit or the building is an urgent service request, and the owner must respond within 24 hours (sections 22 and 23).
• Every unit needs a separate, secure mailbox in good repair, and owners must keep access to mail rooms in good repair (section 29.2, added in 2026).
• The five-year state of good repair plan must cover work to maintain or improve the security of the building (section 54).

Read the consolidated by-law itself rather than a summary. A guard does not replace any of this. However, shift logs make it easier to show the city that you recorded security requests and dealt with them on time.

What apartment building security guards cannot do

Tenants have rights that a guard has to respect. Otherwise, the guard creates problems for the landlord. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006:

• A landlord may enter a unit only as sections 26 and 27 allow. Section 27 lets a landlord enter for repairs and other set reasons with at least 24 hours’ written notice, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A guard does not go into units on patrol.
• Section 22 says a landlord must not substantially interfere with a tenant’s reasonable enjoyment of the unit or the building. So guards should apply parking and noise rules fairly and the same way every time. They should not hassle residents in their own hallways.
• Section 24 says a landlord must not change the locks on a unit or building entrance without giving tenants new keys. In other words, re-keying after a break-in means new keys for every tenant.

On the other hand, guards can deal with people who do not live there. Under Ontario’s Trespass to Property Act, someone the landlord has authorized can tell a non-resident to leave and can ban them from the property. A guard who writes down each notice gives you a record if that person comes back.

Do you need a guard, a patrol or neither?

First, start with the building, not the security company. Broken door closers, dark parking lots and missing fobs cause more incidents than a lack of guards. Besides, fixing them is cheaper. Once the building is in good repair, use this as a guide:

• Problems on a few nights a week: a guard on those nights only, reviewed after a month.
• People sleeping or using drugs in common areas most nights: an overnight post until the pattern breaks, then a patrol.
• Several smaller buildings with occasional trouble: mobile patrol with documented visits at each address.
• A large building with a lobby and heavy visitor traffic: a staffed front desk, which works more like a condominium concierge post.

Questions to ask before hiring apartment building security guards

• What is your agency licence number, and does every guard hold an individual Ontario licence? Both can be checked on the province’s public registry.
• Can I see a sample shift report with personal details removed?
• Will the same guards work my building each week, so tenants get to know them?
• What exactly is in the hourly rate, and what is charged separately?
• Who do I call at 2 a.m. if the guard does not show up, and how quickly is the post covered?

How StandBy Security staffs rental buildings

We supply licensed guards and mobile patrol to rental and residential buildings across Hamilton, dispatched from our office at 175 Catharine St S. Our agency licence is #30000322, and the same range of $28 to $45 an hour appears on our residential security services page. Every shift ends with a written report to the property manager.

To price a schedule for your building, call our 24/7 dispatch line at (289) 309-3633 or send a quote request. You can also read our licensing and insurance details.