AIBU to feel uncomfortable about neighbour's camera facing our garden?

[Butterflytulip88]

Next door have put a camera in their bedroom window pointing directly down into our garden and doorway. Is this allowed? I have young children. But I also don't want to get into a dispute. How would you feel about this?

That is incredibly weird. Is it pointing towards just your garden or theirs too?

Just ours, and a bit of a shared path/gate. I can't tell exactly which bit is in view but it's definitely not at their garden!

Is it a problem for you? CCTV should only capture the camera owners property, up to the boundary line.

It's not allowed, no. You are within your rights to ask them to reposition it, if they refuse as long as it's within your own boundary you can put a screen of some type up to block their camera out.

If you feel the person is recording your child inappropriately then you should contact the police.

go and have a word and point out it’s illegal and intrusive. If they refuse to move it speak to your local police as they will go and speak to them

I don't think they are allowed to have a camera aimed at your property, it can be on their's or public areas, but not private property, if it can be avoided.

Ask non emergency police to attend. We had them round to check ours when idiot across the road rang them.
Idiot who set fireworks off on his kerb ..us and ndn have 3 cars each.

its likely to have a feed where they can view it from their mobile phone. Next time you see them just ask them to show you the view, you can then have a conversation about it.

Without your permission they cannot record your property. However how can you be sure it is not excluding your area as many cameras can be adjusted to blank part of view out,

There’s another thread about a woman terrified to go in her garden because her neighbours are really antagonistic to her and she’s been advised to put a camera in her garden. Maybe your neighbour is trying to film antisocial behaviour on your part?

The police probably won't care. My neighbour did similar to me (bedroom windows), and the police's response was "ooh, thats a bit of a grey area". Hopefully they would take your case more seriously, as you have children.

Could you block its view with something I wonder? A garden shed, a big sun umbrella or a leafy plant

I wouldn't like that either

Just to say that they could have set up privacy zones and excluded your property from being recorded. We’ve done this with our Ring doorbell so we don’t capture our neighbour’s front door.

@FlowerUser There's been a camera there since we moved in, so it's not because of anything I've done. But it's worse now and pointing completely at my garden

When we renovated our house, the security system was installed before we moved in. One of the cameras on the side was positioned so it captured one of our side walls and part of the neighbours' garden. I asked our security company to move it, but that was the only place to position it for that part of the garden, so we left it, but blocked out their bit. It's still in place, but we only see up to our boundary and the rest is greyed out.

I'd just go and politely tell them that it's making you uncomfortable. As a PP said, they should be able to show you the camera capture on their phone or laptop. It's possible it's just aimed at the shared path and your garden is blocked out.

@TeaBiscuitsNaptime it's hard to block as it's right outside my door, gate and path so I need access. I like the umbrella idea though as I could move it!

@TwoBagsOfCompost I don't think it's a ring doorbell type one or a proper security camera. It looks like a web cam. They have a doorbell camera as well, this is in addition.

Could be they are keeping an eye on the shared gate/path? Also with these cameras you can put in digital blocks so it can cover an large area but they will only see a small subsection if that area.

Have you actually seen it? My camera looks like it's pointing somewhere but in reality it isn't.

I don't understand why people object anyway. If something happens and it happens to be caught in camera. People are the first ones to point police in the camera owners direction. Been there.

@wombat1a oh they definitely are trying to keep an eye on the shared path! But it's my gate and garden they are also capturing! They already have a ring door bell for their own garden. This camera is pointing specifically at mine.

Go speak to them and ask to see the view on the monitor/phone. Most security cameras these days enable "masking" which means that they can block out areas which include your property. There's not a lot you can do if they are trying to protect a shared area

Could you position a really bright light aimed at the camera?

Concave mirror positioned in front of it? Or a very large plant?