Neighbours CCTV Cameras pointing at our Property

cymruchris

Ant555 said:

dickibobboy said:

Apart from you seeing the physical camera how do you know they can see your garden/property area?

If the houses are quite close together then its quite likely.

my post 6 of this recent thread (the one with the screen grab) shows a field of view from my CCTV camera when pointing along a side wall.  Luckily for me the neighbours have a garage but if it was their back door, I would be capturing them coming in and out all of the time.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6249066/neighbors-cctv-intrusion/p1

One of the cameras at the front which is pointing away from the house towards the cars on the driveway can see the front doors of the people opposite.

Having said that, I hardly ever look at the cameras - in fact I have only looked at the footage a couple of times this year and that was lying in bed to check if it was snowing outside!

At night, if I can see the red glow of the IR lights on my cameras where I am stood then I am probably in the field of view of my system.

Not necessarily - security cameras have lenses like regular cameras - and come in different focal lengths - although the two most popular are 2.8 and 4mm - there are many that are varifocal and can be up to around 12mm (or more) - the lower the number - the wider the field of view. Many basic cameras are 2.8 or 4mm, but any more specialist camera could easily be 12mm - which would be quite a zoom - so they may be pointing for example at the front garden gate - or the drive entrance. Without seeing what's exactly on their screen or knowing the exact spec of their system - nobody here can say what they can or can't see - and shouldn't assume otherwise.

LouiseAH

dickibobboy said:

Apart from you seeing the physical camera how do you know they can see your garden/property area?

I know for an absolute fact the cameras are recording are property. I am thankful for all the posts but was really looking for advice from other members of the forum  who have had the same problem and have managed to resolved it. I don't really want to go down the route of using a solicitor and end up paying a lot of money if there better and quicker way to get it sorted out. Other posters may not have a problem being recorded but I don't see why I should be recorded especially in my own back garden.

benson1980

LouiseAH said:

dickibobboy said:

Apart from you seeing the physical camera how do you know they can see your garden/property area?

I know for an absolute fact the cameras are recording are property. I am thankful for all the posts but was really looking for advice from other members of the forum  who have had the same problem and have managed to resolved it. I don't really want to go down the route of using a solicitor and end up paying a lot of money if there better and quicker way to get it sorted out. Other posters may not have a problem being recorded but I don't see why I should be recorded especially in my own back garden.

Have you tried talking to them, explaining your concern, and perhaps they would show you what it records? Surely this is the first step, before getting anywhere near considering talking to a solicitor- and the latter isn't going to get you very far anyway unless the cameras are literally just set up to record you/your property.

LouiseAH

benson1980 said:

LouiseAH said:

dickibobboy said:

Apart from you seeing the physical camera how do you know they can see your garden/property area?

I know for an absolute fact the cameras are recording are property. I am thankful for all the posts but was really looking for advice from other members of the forum  who have had the same problem and have managed to resolved it. I don't really want to go down the route of using a solicitor and end up paying a lot of money if there better and quicker way to get it sorted out. Other posters may not have a problem being recorded but I don't see why I should be recorded especially in my own back garden.

Have you tried talking to them, explaining your concern, and perhaps they would show you what it records? Surely this is the first step, before getting anywhere near considering talking to a solicitor- and the latter isn't going to get you very far anyway unless the cameras are literally just set up to record you/your property.

Of course I have tried communicating with them. If I could resolve the problem by communicating with them I wouldn't need to seek advice on this forum.

tonyh66

You better get the checkbook out, the only way you have is legal and expensive and it may not get you the solution you want. You could speak to plod but I doubt there is any joy there. Or you could move house.
Why they need that many cameras is beyond me they are obviously as paranoid of intruders as you are of being spied on.

justwhat

LouiseAH said:

sand_hun said:

In a way, perhaps it's not such a bad thing - if you were to have unwanted visitors on your property maybe the footage from the neighbour's CCTV could come in useful. 

However, if it bothers you in terms of privacy maybe you need to take some action. Are they approachable? i.e. could you perhaps politely ask that they point the cameras within the boundaries of their own property?

If we had unwanted visitors on our property and it was captured by their CCTV cameras I dont think they would even tell us. They are not approachable so can not ask the politely to re-position the cameras. 

But the police can get access to it. 

cymruchris

LouiseAH said:

dickibobboy said:

Apart from you seeing the physical camera how do you know they can see your garden/property area?

I know for an absolute fact the cameras are recording are property. I am thankful for all the posts but was really looking for advice from other members of the forum  who have had the same problem and have managed to resolved it. I don't really want to go down the route of using a solicitor and end up paying a lot of money if there better and quicker way to get it sorted out. Other posters may not have a problem being recorded but I don't see why I should be recorded especially in my own back garden.

I know where you're coming from - and understand your concerns - but how do you know 'for an absolute fact' that they are recording your property? You could very well be right - but unless you've seen their screen - how do you know? As I've mentioned a bit further up - a lot of modern systems have privacy masks - and if it was fitted by a competent company - they would have set up those privacy masks. With the mask in place - nothing is recorded or viewable on your property even if the camera is pointing at your bedroom window.

I appreciate you're not able to communicate with them, and it's a shame they can't be a bit more friendly in helping you understand exactly what they can and can't see, so it may be that the only route you'll have is to potentially write them a letter along the lines of a 'subject data access request' - in that you specify a time and a date when you know you were in the garden - and then that day send a request for the images. They can of course ignore it - and would likely make your neighbourly relations worse - but if you're determined to see what they can see - then that's the first step forwards. 

See here for more info:

https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-being-filmed/

cymruchris

tonyh66 said:

You better get the checkbook out, the only way you have is legal and expensive and it may not get you the solution you want. You could speak to plod but I doubt there is any joy there. Or you could move house.
Why they need that many cameras is beyond me they are obviously as paranoid of intruders as you are of being spied on.

Systems aren't always fitted for the purpose of crime prevention - some use them to keep a track of children or elderly relatives. There can be a multitude of reasons - I have 12 cameras at what was my dad's house covering front, back, gardens and all downstairs rooms so that when I wasn't around I was able to keep a check on him to ensure he hadn't wandered off and fallen over (which he did a couple of times). 

justwhat

Do they need planning permission or is it permitted development?
If they need planning get the council to sort it out.

i have 4 camera's on a building  2 look directly into residential windows. HOWEVER privacy masks are set on the camera for those locations.

On another property i had a Honeywell pan tilt 32x zoom cam. And that could see whole street. HOWEVER zoom was not enabled.(that went through  planning.)

i really don't understand people complaining about privacy when most of the time IT'S the same views from public areas or residential windows. 

benson1980

LouiseAH said:

benson1980 said:

LouiseAH said:

dickibobboy said:

Apart from you seeing the physical camera how do you know they can see your garden/property area?

I know for an absolute fact the cameras are recording are property. I am thankful for all the posts but was really looking for advice from other members of the forum  who have had the same problem and have managed to resolved it. I don't really want to go down the route of using a solicitor and end up paying a lot of money if there better and quicker way to get it sorted out. Other posters may not have a problem being recorded but I don't see why I should be recorded especially in my own back garden.

Have you tried talking to them, explaining your concern, and perhaps they would show you what it records? Surely this is the first step, before getting anywhere near considering talking to a solicitor- and the latter isn't going to get you very far anyway unless the cameras are literally just set up to record you/your property.

Of course I have tried communicating with them. If I could resolve the problem by communicating with them I wouldn't need to seek advice on this forum.

So what did they say then regarding use of their system? Did they actually refuse to speak to you about it/what was said?