AIBU to not want an estate agent taking drone pictures of my garden?

[SilentAlarm]

I was looking on Rightmove last night and found a neighbour has put their house up for sale, and one of the photos is an aerial drone view from above. It includes their house plus about five others, including mine.

I don’t actually see how this kind of picture would attract sellers anyway, if anything it just highlights how close all of the properties/gardens are to one another (new build estate).

AIBU to feel uncomfortable in knowing a drone was taking pictures of my property without my knowledge? Are they even allowed to do that?

You know you’re on google street view right?

Yes they are allowed. Licensed drone pilots can film/photograph as long as they are 50m above the property.

I wouldn't be happy either but I don't think there's a lot you can do

We actually aren’t on Street View yet with it being a new build, it’s not updated. Appreciate that at some point we will be though.

It just feels a bit different - I expect to be on Street View. I didn’t expect an estate agent to be flying above my property taking pictures to be used in order to sell someone else’s house. Feels like an invasion of privacy but looks like I’m in the minority to feel that way so will just get over it!

Stand in your garden and give them the finger! Then it won’t end up on the website

@Bluntness100

You know you’re on google street view right?

That's not pictures of the back garden though is it?

I'd ask the estate agent to prove that they are legally allowed to have a drone. Perhaps a few tweets or Facebook messages will embarrass them.

Or if it is a man who runs the agency, ask for warning next time as a male neighbour sometimes walks into the garden nude, and they would not want to film that, would they?

it might not be on street view but it maybe on "satellite" (google) look up maps than go to satellite view - just out of interest

There’s no much that isn’t on Google Earth - I don’t really understand your objection tbh.

I'd be annoyed about that.
It's a lack of privacy. Rude.

They have probably done it because you aren't visible on google earth yet. Rightmove links to map and satellite view so once you have been captured by google earth, you will be able to be seen there anyway.

If I was unhappy, I would instruct them to crop the photo such that it’s only the garden of the house they’re selling.

Arrange some neon tennis balls into the shape of a massive penis on your lawn and leave them there. You should see a marked reduction in this drone footage of your garden.

Ask the estate agents to crop the photo. When my previous neighbours had their house up for sale, CF estate agents took a photo of my garage (better garage as it had more parking) up and portrayed it as the neighbours one. I was a bit livid, didn't want to have to start a thread on here after their house was sold to reclaim my own garage!
They took it down though fairly quickly when I asked...then signed me up to their mailing list which is another CF issue