I’m not really sure about the legality of this situation, so I’m asking for input from people who may have had similar situations.
I have a next door neighbor (house is about 20ft away) that we have had many issues with in the past. He thinks we were the people that called the city on him for a code violation (we were not), so there have been many instances of him harassing me while I’m out playing with my kids; Harassing family members when they are over; flicking us off while he is riding around on his mower, etc. It finally got bad enough when he came up to me on my property while I was with my kid and started an argument and wouldn’t leave. As I was walking away, he kept walking towards me onto my property and wouldn’t go away until I threatened to call the police. I called the police, and a report was made, but I didn’t want to escalate any further, so I stopped it there.
Cut to today when I’m out watering my flowers, and I notice a blue light go off in my peripheral. He has a camera up in the crook of his house aimed down at my house with motion detection set on. It was going off when I was on my porch and when I’m in my front yard where my kids play constantly.
Are there any legality issues with this? What would you do in this situation?
SecureHomeHub said:
Nope - he’s perfectly legal, but you could always put a spotlight facing into his camera and effectively block it out…
My neighbor was annoyed at my cameras and must have read this suggestion. He installed a few really bright spotlights on his house, and they now point at my house 24/7. Doesn’t affect the cameras at all. Even at night. Just makes his house look stupid. OP, get cameras of your own. Better cameras. Paint them black so he can’t tell the brand. Mount them as close to his house as you can.
@Paige
Check your city/county dark sky ordinance. Spotlights shining into a neighbor’s property at night might be illegal in your area. If so, file a complaint with your city/county with pictures.
Another question: I was thinking about putting something on that side that would be in constant motion to set off his motion detection constantly making it irrelevant. Can you think of anything that would work? He has a Ring camera.
A lot of cameras have the ability to exclude sections you draw onto the image from motion detection. If you put something up, it may need to be something you can move around.
In most cases, the deciding factor is whether it sees things that are publicly visible. If he could see the same thing standing in his yard or looking out his window, generally it is legal. The exception is if it is pointed somewhere private like your hot tub or bedroom.
If you want to be petty, you can try using an infrared light pointed at the camera. It won’t be visible to humans but could mess with the camera’s view.
@HavenGuard
I thought about the infrared light thing, but I care more about the daytime when my kids are outside playing, I’m doing yard work, or when we’re sitting on the porch.