to think the estate agents should do more?

[Jk8]

we moved into a rental property with a camera out the front facing onto the road & several sensors inside (all working as they have a small light that beeps when you walk past the hallway towards the garage/into the house from the front door & into or out of the main bedroom but no privacy concerns as it only records out the front)

we dont have access to any of it nor did we install it ourselves & unfortunately ive just had to contact the estate agents about where it goes as our neighbours directly across the street have been robbed overnight & after emailing & asking a family member to phone them direct i recieved a short reply saying 'i dont know anything about a camera at the property' by a
less then concerned mikaela *** from accounting (!?!)

i responded back with pictures of said system & a note informing her where they were on the property but after no further responce basically just replyed "thanks for nothing" as theres been no mention what so ever of contacting the owner, looking further into it, check out why the system is even in place (might just take it down & sell it for scrap if theyres no record of it existing anyway? these things are supposedly easy to hack right ?)

Are you sure it's not a burglar alarm?

If there's a camera on your property you probably should have privacy concerns. If "it only records out the front" there would be no reason for it to be activated "when you walk past the hallway towards the garage/into the house from the front door & into or out of the main bedroom."

The difficulty of hacking a device depends on what the camera's inbuilt security is and whether it was set up properly. But a landlord (presumably it's theirs) shouldn't install one in a property they let.

Are you in the UK? If so, if the camera is recording the road, there should be a sign up notifying people of the presence of the camera and the contact details for the person responsible for controlling it.

Just take it down/unplug it etc til you hear otherwise. Can't believe you left it up without knowing what it's all about. I'd be freaked out
What if the landlord is spying on you.

Yes echoing what PP said are you sure it's not a burglar alarm?

If it really is a camera then you should be having access. I'm assuming when you say it records it front it means the garden? In which case no one should have access apart from you.
Because you go in the garden so someone could watch you.

Either way instead of replying 'thanks for nothing' you'd be better to ring letting agents and email until you get a satisfactory response

I would assume it started out as a security alarm as its on a rental property in a estate &
By facing the road I mean it's above the garage facing outwards rather then towards the door which is sort of behind a small wall due to the angle if you see what i mean but yes. Ive had concerns about it in the past when we first arrived as somebody kept saying it was lucky & I pointed out we dont have access so it would just be the landlord knowing wether people were piling up cars/rubbish on the front garden or loads of people comming or going although our landlord changed with the property being sold last year & we've not had problems or complaints so assumed it was just sort of dormant unless you specifically needed to contact somebody about it.

Who is paying for the electricity to run this system?

Unfortunately as its a rental I would 100% guarentee our landlord has way too much infomation about us between the application papers/inspections/ownership rights.

I just knew for a fact the camera was definitely here when it was built as its wired into a new build property & the place has been sold since then with tenants in place though we've not recieved any mention or complaints about coming & going at any hour (shift workers & smokers) or people being around. (Close to family)

Think I'll have to check further though now I've experianced it's complete uselessness

Aren't cameras usually plugged into an NVR or something in the house so they can run?

Possibly, Would it look like this ?

Yes looks like our burglar alarm in our house.

No idea. We've never had one & didnt install or rent the property with this specifically attatched ??

But that's what I mean.
It must be a burglar alarm

🤔 good point actually its deffo comming down if this isn't sorted

That’s a burglar alarm…

It looks like a burlgar alarm. But you'd have to have a panel to set/unset it
Very weird
Unplug/deactivate it. See if the landlord contacts you.

Thanks. I'll look further into it. Just assumed it was a camera due to the front bit.

I've assumed it was a camera due to the look of it & lack of a panel anywhere inside (its a small 3 bed house) as I am aware we dont have one so figured it must be accessed off base somewhere

Will have to ultimately take it down. Agreed

Do not take it down!
Landlord can charge you for it when you move out.
If it's not causing issues because you're not using it it should be fine
But if you really want to you could ask landlord to deactivate.
Personally I'd just leave it

That's been our thought process till date that its not causing problems & 'belongs to the house' sort of thing but with this break in across the road & the lady specifically asking for any recordings as we've all been under the impression its a camera from looking at it as there's no set box to activate or disactivate an alarm in the house but im thinking its not worth just having there to be honest.

It's up to you but in my experience landlords will try anything to keep any part of the deposit.

Fair enough. I'll keep it in mind

Those sensors that flash as you walk past them are definitely burglar alarm sensors - we've got the same sensors. There should be a keypad somewhere - usually near the entrance/exit doors to enable it to be set and unset. The camera outside is possibly part of the same system or an add on. FGS don't tamper with it as the alarm will go off even if its not set and as you clearly know nothing about the system you won't be able to turn it off. If it's anything like ours it's deafening inside the house as well as ringing outside and annoying the neighbours.

You need to contact the landlord or be more insistent that the agent does if you don't have contact details.

There's definitely no keypad in the house as we've lived here more then a year & it's quite a small home with no nooks or cranies + if it was a purely residential alarm system I'd have assumed the info would have been passed on how to reset a password or download some program for it if not have had some issue with it needing servicing or being triggered by us as its turned "on" continually so definitely believe it leads somewhere else & just feeling bad for the lady across the road as she saw it & hoped it might have helped after the stress of discovering things missing this morning. But I honestly have no clue what it is/or where it leads & the estate agent is of 0 help

I'm more baffles by the fact that you have these things in your home and haven't questioned them before now

I wouldn't touch the 'camera', the others look like motion sensors, but you should have a control panel...... Otherwise they're redundant as they're not connected to anything.
I'd be emailing the estate agent with a formal complaint, requesting that the complaint is escalated as you have devices in your property that are potentially recording your family and you're paying to run them

Baffled*