Cleaners take video clips in my house without my knowledge or permission

[turnedworm]

AIBU - I use a contract cleaning company as I am an Aurbnb host. This week new cleaners came in & there has been a disagreement over the quality of the cleaning and who actually turned up to do the work. The company boss has now sent ‘proof’ video footage of ‘clutter’ and of my business that I run downstairs from home (which involves my original designs not shared yet) - taken in my house - without my permission. The cleaners are primarily here only to do the Airbnb cleaning which is up stairs, But I do ask that they clean the floors downstairs & whatever else they can if time permits.

Am I being unreasonable for being angry at this massive invasion of my privacy?

It sounds to me as though people are not sure what is allowed or not and are taking video etc which could breach the law. Quite a lot of people work from home or are hiding from a violent partner and video of their house or still photos could be a problem for them in that case or they may just be private people. If there is no personal data on it nor can it be linked to it it could still breach rights such as be some kind of trespass or common law of confidentiality unless you agreed at the time.

it is getting very common for work men to take photos - mine did when doing my drains which was useful actually as I could see the work he had done; yesteray one man who put up and decorated my Christmas tree tok a ph oto of it at the end. I didn't actually consent to that and thought it was slightly cheeky but it was only of the tree, no private papers or photos near by so I didn't object - it was kind of just one still photo of the work he had done probably to prove to bosses he and his mate had actually put it up.

A long while ago when my twins were little we had a polish painter doing painting for a month one summer who asked to photograph the twins with their nanny - kind of English children at play in a big house which they and I were all happy with but our cleaner (muslim ) did not want to be on there and she objected later saying he had photographed her - they both came to see me separaetly. He showed me his camera and he definitely had no footage of her on there but it just illustrats what a difficult issue it can be.

Celebrities will have a written contract with a clause about photos in there, possibly even a non disclosure agreement.

it could be a good idea before having people doing works in your house saying something like - it would be great if you could take pictures of the work on your phone when I am there and give approval at the time but not otherwise. Mind you that might make some of them take even more secret photos. Perhaps we need to strip search them and have phones left elsewhere for safe keeping... phew difficult issues of our age - no wonder I do my own cleaning and as much DIY I can myself these days.

one man who put up and decorated my Christmas tree

You employ someone to put up and decorate your Christmas tree??

You've accused them of not doing their job properly. They've taken short before and after (?) videos to prove that they are. How else are they to cover themselves if you're not there to sign off every time they start and finish the job? Lots of tradespeople do this. My builders sent me photos of what they'd done at the end of each day's work.

You ask them to clean the floor of your workroom/ studio. They have taken a video to show the clutter that they have to deal with. They've inadvertently included some of your designs. Were they to know that the designs were important? Did you warn them about not photographing?

Two solutions. You put anything precious that might be photographed or stolen away before the cleaners come – which I would have thought is only good practice. Or you don't give them access to your workspace and you clean your own floor. You are being unreasonable.

But @thatdamnwoman, why an dhow do you want the OP to tell them not to x or y, that x drswings shoupd be kept private and so on if she does NOT kow they are taking th clips????

I agree. They are in a private property and have no right to take photos/videos wo
1- telling the person they are doing so
2- have a system in place to say how the videos are stored/ give full access to them/give a right to destroy (or have a system to destroy them after a week)
I am wondering if this doesnt come into the remit of GDPR too.

I have to say, I would demand to see all the videos they have and ask them to destroy all of them. I would want something in writting about the fact all the videso hve been detsroyed and have not an dwill never be shared/used by any 3rd party (just in caseone of them just suddenly reappears)
I would also change company ASAP.

There's quite a few separate issues here. The fact your designs are out on the desk isn't really related at all - and anyway if they were trying to steal your designs, they would just photograph or scan them on their phones and not share those with you...

Sounds like there are other trust issues with the key safe and you not being sure who came and what they did however. Do you have an issue with the quality of their work or them being there in general?

It's quite common for people working for an agency or similar to take photos of work done these days, and with time stamps to show they were there. It protects them against complaints too.

Would it not be best to just have cleaners for the AirBnB part of your property and not allow them in your private part of the home if you're not there, to avoid this being an issue at all?

There was no ‘after’ video. Just one taken a couple of minutes after they arrived. They were in the wrong part of the house as they should have been upstairs doing the Airbnb cleaning. But they were (I believe) moaning & judgy about how there was too much to do and I think they took the video of clutter (that was not on a floor) as evidence that there was too much to do.
They had a detailed instructions but it seems they didn’t bother to read them. I did ask the cleaning company if they spoke and could read English (as many don’t) and she assured me that they spoke brilliant English!

So they are supposed to clean the air bnb first and if they have time clean the downstairs? They should have been upstairs

Yes - they went immediately downstairs to film my private area when they are primarily employed to clean upstairs - which they completely failed to make a good job of. There are written instructions telling to go upstairs and to focus on the bathroom - they didn’t. I think they just went for a nose around and decided they didn’t want to do any of it. I’ve shown the clip to 2 people who both said ‘wow, that’s judgy’.
They aren’t coming back.

Pretty sure the law re photography states that the owner must give permission so they acted illegally.

@Cherrysoup I'd be interested to know what law specifically.

What is the outcome you want from this? Have you finished the contract with the cleaning company?

There is no law against filming if you have given permission to the people in your property. Which you have.

Given permission for the people to be in your property that should say.

@housesearching can’t remember specifics, but I researched some years back when this idiot was taking and uploading images of the horses at the yard. You’re allowed to take pictures on private land unless the owner says no, we were concerned that he was making it really obvious where we were and exactly what horses/equipment was there. There are no restrictions in public, but within a property, the owner can impose restrictions. Some guidelines here: www.sirimo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ukphotographersrights-v2.pdf

Hi I run a cleaning company and we ask for permission to take photos and videos as we use them for website and Facebook. I do not think it is correct of the company do do this in your home