Photography in the neighborhood

As you said, there's no expectation of privacy when you're taking photos from the sidewalk street (how do people think Google Maps gets photos of a house or a building???).

As long as you stay on the common area and aren't doing things like trying to photograph the inside of the house, you should be ok. That said, It may help to give the homeowners a heads up that from time to time it may be necessary to take photographs of an area for association business, such as insurance or to document CCR violations. If you can see it from the street, snap away.

And since we aren't attorneys, legal questions are best left to your association attorney because the law can vary in different states. You can also run this by your association master insurance.

Thanks Shelia.

I'm going to add this as an agenda item at our next Board meeting. While I believe that I need to take photographs, we as a Board need to support doing so. In addition to taking photographs, I find myself in unusual places in the neighborhood which makes people uncomfortable. (For example, we own greenbelts that face some homeowner backyards, I have to go walk these greenbelts from time to time for association business). It's not practical to notify people each and every time we do something unusual, but I try to be respectful in conducting business.

I think it's be really good for us to send an e-mail out to all homeowners letting them know that we have responsibilities and requirements to meet in conducting association business and that homeowners may see us out taking photographs and walking on the HOA-owned greenbelts as part of our Board responsibilities.

We'll discuss that as a Board, and if there is consensus, then send out the communication to all homeowners.

An owner would have a difficult time building any sort of substantial case against you.

Taking photos is a public place is perfectly legal, and yes, the expectation of privacy is much different in a public area. The owner may be annoyed, but you are doing your job and aren't breaking any rules or laws.

I agree that this should not take up directors' time in a meeting. As president, I think, on you own, you can send out the type of notice that others have suggested.

Does your HOA have a newsletter?

Re the homeowner confronting you about taking pictures: I’d give him credit for at least being aware of what’s going on; in my neighborhood an unfortunate number of people simply don’t pay attention.

I’ve had reason to look into photography law from time to time. In general, I’m the USA, you can take photos of almost anything that is outside and “public”. If you try taking pictures of the insides of people’s houses, or up women’s skirts, etc, that’s when you can expect the police to come. Texas, for instance, has laws against certain kinds of “invasive recording”.

Note that there is a difference between *taking* a photograph and *publishing* a photograph . A photographer owns the photograph they took - but publishing or distributing a photo of a private person’s likeness can leave you open to lawsuit. A published / distributed photo of a private person or their property that includes a negative comment could leave you open to a libel suit: “1313 Mockingbird Lane: home to monsters, ghouls, vampires, and Republicans” could get you into trouble, maybe.

I believe that the general definition of “publication” is to make it available to the general public. Contrawise, I do not believe that limited sharing of a photo within a small group (ie, sharing pictures of a damaged property with other Board members via email) is considered “publication”. I’d probably put “BOD use only; do not redistribute” on it, just in case.

It’s often said, and it’s true, that you can get sued for anything. But I’m unaware of any successful lawsuit over the taking of an otherwise legal photograph. For instance, if I see a suspicious person or vehicle in my neighborhood, I’ll take a few pictures. If I don’t hear about a burglary or other crime in the vicinity, I’ll delete the photos. I do not believe there is anything actionable about this.

Practically speaking, publishing a photo of a person or their property to social media might get you into trouble - if you just *gotta* do it, spending a few minutes to “anonymize” the image with Photoshop might be worthwhile.

I’m not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, etc.

BillD

No. I enjoy it immensely and it brings no unhappiness or stress.

I also enjoy posting questions here. I get some really good feedback and interesting tidbits that I wouldn't get otherwise. For example, I didn't know that many property managers are used to having the police called upon them. From that comment, I realized I should be less sensitive about what I am doing. If someone calls the police, I simply explain what I'm doing. I never knew that before.

I will turn your comment back around and say that if reading my posts or responding to them is causing unhappiness, please remember that every mouse comes with a scrolling wheel, and it costs nothing to use that wheel.

Henry

The person over reacted. You explained why you are taking photos. End of story. Drop it.