Planning Application - Neighbour Taking Photographs without Permission

Hannimal

davidmcn said:

Hannimal said:

what would stop someone from taking pictures of your home when you're not there?

Nothing beyond your own security precautions. Perfectly legal for someone to stand in a public place (or an adjoining property) and take a photo of your house. If they walk up your garden path and you want them to leave you can of course ask them to, but there's nothing specific you can do about photos taken while they're there.

Maybe i am not quite understanding this correctly but is it so that if you have a window close enough to a road it would be legal for someone to zoom into you bedroom, bathroom, and just photograph? I am not British and I know where I am from this would be illegal under the same law that would prohibit filming people in certain public areas such as changing rooms and toilets - but I tried to find a translation for the crime into english and the dictionary doesn't seem to know it. 

davidmcn

Hannimal said:

davidmcn said:

Hannimal said:

what would stop someone from taking pictures of your home when you're not there?

Nothing beyond your own security precautions. Perfectly legal for someone to stand in a public place (or an adjoining property) and take a photo of your house. If they walk up your garden path and you want them to leave you can of course ask them to, but there's nothing specific you can do about photos taken while they're there.

Maybe i am not quite understanding this correctly but is it so that if you have a window close enough to a road it would be legal for someone to zoom into you bedroom, bathroom, and just photograph? I am not British and I know where I am from this would be illegal under the same law that would prohibit filming people in certain public areas such as changing rooms and toilets - but I tried to find a translation for the crime into english and the dictionary doesn't seem to know it. 

There are crimes covering "peeping Tom" activities (whether or not you have a camera) so that would be a different matter.

Comms69

Hannimal said:

davidmcn said:

Hannimal said:

what would stop someone from taking pictures of your home when you're not there?

Nothing beyond your own security precautions. Perfectly legal for someone to stand in a public place (or an adjoining property) and take a photo of your house. If they walk up your garden path and you want them to leave you can of course ask them to, but there's nothing specific you can do about photos taken while they're there.

Maybe i am not quite understanding this correctly but is it so that if you have a window close enough to a road it would be legal for someone to zoom into you bedroom, bathroom, and just photograph? I am not British and I know where I am from this would be illegal under the same law that would prohibit filming people in certain public areas such as changing rooms and toilets - but I tried to find a translation for the crime into english and the dictionary doesn't seem to know it. 

Voyeurism laws exist, but essentially yes, this would be legal. 

You can keep coming up with as many examples as you want, photography in public is legal. 

eddddy

As far as the Local Authority Planning website goes, you can try contacting the Local Authority with your concerns about security.  They might remove the photos on that basis. (A planning department removed a photo from a planning objection when I asked them to, for similar reasons.)

Where else have they been posted online?

m0bov

If for sure report to your local police for a crime number. It's possibly harrasment, let them decide. I would also check your insurance legal cover as it might be more a civil thing. You can get an restraint order and have a solicitor write to the neighbor. 

AdrianC

There are three questions here.

1. Trespass. Assuming he really did trespass, and not simply walk up a public footpath... Perhaps he walked up to their door, knocked, but nobody was in? How far off-piste actually was this person?
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/trespass-and-nuisance-land
"Trespass is not of itself a criminal offence"
Even then, it's not you who has been trespassed against. It is the owner of the land. The fact that you may be buying the property is irrelevant.

2. Breach of privacy. We aren't talking about taking photos of slebs sunbathing or peering into bedroom windows. Don't muddy the waters with daft analogies. We're talking about some photos of some unsecured possessions in an open shed.

3. Security. The barn is not secure. It is open. There is no suggestion of breaking and entering or criminal damage. If you can't be bothered to take the most basic precautions to secure things, then - no - you cannot complain if people see that they're there. Even if they are where they shouldn't be.

No, I wouldn't necessarily want the contents of my garage posted online... That's why my garage has doors and padlocks. The front of the garage is on a public footpath. Yes, I leave the doors open - and I do that for convenience, knowing that I can't complain if somebody takes a pic of the stuff inside through those doors if they do walk past while I've left 'em open. Do people occasionally go off-piste from the footpath? Yes. What recompense am I allowed? I get the opportunity to say "Umm, excuse me, but the footpath doesn't go this way." Or, if I'm feeling particularly obstreperous, "Git orf moi laaaaaaand"...

The person in question may be a sandwich short of a picnic. OTOH, they may have an actual point relating to the planning application. That's for the planners to decide, and their submission to the application will be weighed on its merits.  By their comments have been "posted to" the planning website, I presume their submission to the application has included the photos, which have then been published as part of the submission? This person's behaviour may or may not have been occasioned by the application, but it is irrelevant to it, except insofar as the content itself is relevant to the substance of their objections.

One thing's for sure... If I put in a planning app, I'd be expecting people FROM the council to come and view the property and take photos... And if it's an old barn for conversion, I'd be expecting people from other bodies, too, to take an interest. Planning is a public process. Got stuff there you don't want seen? Move it. Cover it.

davidmcn

m0bov said:

If for sure report to your local police for a crime number. It's possibly harrasment, let them decide. I would also check your insurance legal cover as it might be more a civil thing. You can get an restraint order and have a solicitor write to the neighbor. 

I can't see any crime which has been committed (how do you get "harassment" out of somebody taking photos of an unoccupied barn?). Nobody's identified a "civil thing" either, and I can't see a case for a restraint order, unless there's something else going on we haven't been told about.

[Deleted User]

Or move the items to a more protected place...,that would be my first item on the to do list.., regardless of whether photo's are being taken or not.  Or hire a secure cabin for storage.  We all know theft is a problem in these kind of places.  

Slinky

wilfred30 said:

drumlinruby said:

foxy-stoat said:

As you do not own the barn or the property I am not sure there is a lot you can do.  Why would posting the photos online course you any concern?

The barn belongs to my parents so I'm posting on their behalf.  It's posting pictures online alot of our possessions. The barn is open so there is a security issue....I guess something similar would be would you want someone posting the contents of your garage/workshop/shed online when there's no way to secure it? 

Exactly what possessions are you keeping in an open barn?  

I'm guessing it's large farm equipment. The sort of thing barns on farms were built for.

princeofpounds

Slinky said:

wilfred30 said:

drumlinruby said:

foxy-stoat said:

As you do not own the barn or the property I am not sure there is a lot you can do.  Why would posting the photos online course you any concern?

The barn belongs to my parents so I'm posting on their behalf.  It's posting pictures online alot of our possessions. The barn is open so there is a security issue....I guess something similar would be would you want someone posting the contents of your garage/workshop/shed online when there's no way to secure it? 

Exactly what possessions are you keeping in an open barn?  

I'm guessing it's large farm equipment. The sort of thing barns on farms were built for.

Large hydroponic equipment perhaps. For cultivation of important crops