Short answer. Yes, that specific scenario is covered. Where the sheriff is refused entry upon making his or her authority and purpose known, copies of the summons may be left with an officer of the homeowners' association or condominium corporation, or its chief security officer in charge of the community.
What the law says
By leaving copies of the summons, if refused entry upon making his or her authority and purpose known, with any of the officers of the homeowners' association or condominium corporation, or its chief security officer in charge of the community or the building where the defendant may be found
Rule 14, Section 6 — Substituted service. Read the full provision →
Refusal of entry has to follow disclosure first
This option is available specifically when the sheriff is refused entry upon making his or her authority and purpose known. That sequence matters: the sheriff has to have identified himself and stated why he is there before being turned away for this provision to apply. A guard who denies entry without ever being told who the sheriff actually is or why he has come is a genuinely different situation from the one this specific rule addresses. This disclosure requirement binds the sheriff, not the guard — it is the sheriff's own conduct that determines whether this method becomes available.
Who the copies can actually be left with
The rule names two categories: any officer of the homeowners' association or condominium corporation, or the chief security officer in charge of the community or the building where you may be found. A gate guard on duty is not automatically either of those — whether the particular guard qualifies as the chief security officer, or is instead a subordinate staff member, can matter to whether this method was properly used.
This is still substituted service, with its own precondition
Like the other forms of substituted service in this rule, this option only becomes available if, for justifiable causes, the defendant cannot be served personally after at least three attempts on two different dates. Being refused entry at the gate is the trigger for using this particular method once substituted service is already warranted, not a separate, standalone shortcut around personal service.
What to look at if you are questioning the service
If you want to know whether this service was properly done, the relevant facts are whether the sheriff genuinely disclosed his authority and purpose before being refused, whether the required personal-service attempts happened first, and whether the person who actually received the copies held the specific role — association officer or chief security officer — that the rule requires for this particular method to work.