Neighbour’s security cameras overlooking bedroom, bathroom and garden: any advice?

[Julysunshineishere]

Has anyone experience of being overlooked by their neighbours security cameras?

Our neighbour has installed cameras which record visual and audio in the soffits of his detached house. One of the cameras is directly opposite my daughter's bedroom window, and an other is 16ft directly across from our bathroom window. (I have hung voiles in her bedroom for privacy, but frustrated I've had to do this! We already had a blind for nighttime, she just felt 'spied on').

I feel I'm being watched constantly daily and the neighbour refuses to show me the camera footage, and denies it records audio. It isn't possible to converse with him, we have tried.

I have spoken to a local supplier of the make and model of the camera that is installed and it is a top of the range camera for audio and image.

Having tried to speak to the neighbour and being completely dismissed I just feel like I have to accept the unwanted intrusion into my daily life.

He has also installed sensor lights on the front of his house that light up as soon as I go onto my drive and get in and out of my car or go to my gate.

The legal department of my home insurance say that other than asking him to show me footage , which he won't, I can write a letter requesting any footage of myself and family as he has a responsibility to produce it. I doubt he will do this as it relies upon the neighbour being responsible and honest about what he is recording.
I'm looking into installing a pergola to give us privacy in our garden, as the rear camera is directly over our patio. I did ask that a camera at the rear was repositioned to not look directly onto our property, I was told it focused purely upon his gate and vehicle and he walked away.

We live in an area that, thankfully hasn't a high crime rate and no history of burglaries or car break ins etc.

Any suggestions? Moving isn't an option!
I love my home, I just don't love feeling constantly watched and my comings and goings illuminated at night and captured 24/7.

put flags or similar flappy things outside on that side of the house. every time they move, they will activate his camera and (a) fill up the hard disk and (b) make him get very bored of looking at footage of a flappy flag.

They only have obscured glass on windows on the side facing our drive. Interestingly enough, since the camera went higher up above our kitchen window,I've noticed that they keep their kitchen blind fully down!

Love the flag idea! We did initially put up a wind chime for same reason, but drove the puppy bonkers!

Is it possible to plant along that fence? If so I would invest in some pleached trees to regain your privacy. They don't take much space at ground level, so you wouldn't interfere too much with the access to the garden.

He may be telling the truth that he has them angled right down so they are looking down only into his garden and onto the pavement and road outside. If you think he has them pointed into your daughters bedroom and your bathroom it's definitely a police matter. Are they automated so he can rotate them remotely or fixed in position?

I would write to him and ask for all audio and visual recordings he has of you and your family. He won’t respond but if he doesn’t then change the cameras you can complain further. He is recording a child and has a camera pointing in their bedroom window so that’s another angle for complaint.
If the cameras are linked to their phones I would suggest plenty of activity throughout the night. Pick random times and wake them up every single night

You certainly have a case. There was a ruling in favour of a claimant who had a similar problem to you. Read about the landmark UK court case (Fairhurst v Woodard) that set a precedent for neighbours winning a privacy lawsuit over CCTV and smart doorbells.

It is illegal to train a camera in anything but your own property. Speak to the police.

Unfortunately we can't plant anything along the border as it's a concrete driveway. After speaking to the legal team at our home insurance company, a half pergola is the only sensible way to get some privacy.

The cameras are fixed thankfully, so that at least is one positive.

I wish I could believe that the cameras were indeed just pointing on his land, however past discussions with him regarding his boundary responsibilities and a broken fence were extremely protracted. He said one thing and did another. The way the camera on the driveway is positioned it is very clear he has the potential to view our driveway and gate too. I politely and calmly asked if he could turn the camera to angle it more to his house wall, and if I could see the images.When I tried to have a conversation with them, his wife walked away tutting and he said it was to monitor his gate nothing else and turned his back on me and walked away.

Its the audio recording aspect that feels even more intrusive, given that the cameras are directly over a patio we use daily and opposite our bathroom window. The bathroom couldn't be captured visually, due to the position of the camera on the front of the house, it's the audio recording that feels intrusive, especially given the closeness of the houses.

I think that unfortunately a formal letter is required, requesting all footage from him. The legal advice was to repeat this every month. Not what I wanted to do, however it seems the only logical step now, as well as speaking with the local community police for advice.

I know the cameras are linked to his phone as the first set of cameras he installed after he moved in, he showed me the images- he was chatting normally at that point. I have been looking at bunting last night too, and thinking about how it could be placed next to the boundary without looking like an eyesore! This current set were an upgrade from those I saw footage for and the new ones have a wider field of vision and can capture images at nighttime that gives daytime vision. I have stopped going out in just my PJs for any night time dog toilet breaks now, just in case!

He's honestly not bothered in the slightest about how his behaviour or actions impact upon my family, and the less I have to do with them the better. However, the high level security of 4 turret cameras in the roofline of a detached house seems disproportionate for our situation. I could understand it more if he'd had a break in or lost possessions etc but he says he hasnt. He just wants to monitor his property and who comes in and out of his garden gate, which is completely his right. It just would have felt more reassuring if he'd have had the decency to talk with me regarding my valid concerns given the angle of the camera looking over our property
I did request it being tilted more to look down his driveway,and he walked away from me.

After installing his front garden fencing, he was convinced that the panels would be stolen, and was securing them in with lots of screws. If anyone was to steal fencing there are hundreds of houses on the estate that have fencing, many new panels would be passed before any potential thief got to his fencing.

I think he's obviously concerned about security, and I need to try to do what I can to maintain as much privacy as possible for my family.

Thanks for the link to the case, I will look at that today.

From your drawings I can’t see where your windows are. It does look like he just has camaras on his home and access points / car.

Also a bit ironic that you now have camaras that can see his kitchen blinds are closed yet you don’t want him looking into your kitchen.

Our camaras have an option to define the area they record. This was set when we had them fitted. It only records movement on our land (ie our drive and garden).

I think the police would be more than willing to drop by and talk to a man pointing a camera at young girls bedroom. You’re not overreacting at all, he’s relying on your under-reacting to get away with potentially very harmful behaviour.

if you don’t want the expense of a solicitor just yet, AI can do you a great letter, as long as you don’t sign it from a legal pro.

Just for clarity, I don't have cameras that capture his kitchen blinds. I noticed that they are closed when I open and close the window at the rear of my property throughout the day when I go out. No irony there.

Is your ring doorbell pointed right at his house?

It sounds like he’s trying to get back at you for having cameras in your garden. You’ve done it so he’s done it too. But he’s gone bigger and better.

Nobody wants a camera right outside of their bedroom window, that’s awful.

No, the ring camera was installed after his CCTV went in. We had to get it as I kept missing deliveries! The settings on the camera only trigger it from our property.
We did chat with them about this and wasn't remotely bothered at the time, all near neighbours have them, we were late to the party!

We did get out garden camera after his were installed and we got our dog. All privacy screens are in use with our cameras.

This, tell the police you believe he is filming your dd in her bedroom, make sure you remove the voiles for a bit so they see right into her room.

Thanks for all the messages and suggestions. I will take the advice given so far and do that.

Life too short to be fixated over cameras, and there are steps I can take to maintain as much privacy as I can, so I will focus on doing that.

To be honest, if I were your neighbour and was being accused of filming into a child’s bedroom I’d be pretty hacked off too.
Have a read of this - it might help.
https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/home-cctv-systems/#concerns

Bamboo. You can grow it in pots. Could be an option for ground floor windows

Write a formal letter to him. Put in links to the ICO guidance which is very clear on this Subject and reference the case a PP gave above.
Tell him that in particular there is a safe guarding concern as it points at your DD window and so if you do not get proof or copies of footage that it is not filming your DD then you will assume he has something to hide and he is filming your DD which means that you will be reporting him to the police as a potential sex offender as you can only assume that is what he is doing in the absense of proof to the contrary.

Thanks for the link to the details on the ICO website. I had read that before trying to chat with him regarding the positioning of the rear camera. He wasn't slightly bothered about what I was explaining.
The angle of the camera is so wide it has the potential to capture our property. If he was bothered it could easily be tilted to look down his driveway.

The draft letter is helpful thanks. It's the one I looked at after speaking to the legal team. I was trying not to have to send it, as I didn't want to make neighbourly relations any worse. I hoped that we could have a chat and things be sorted that way. Obviously not to be.

That’s not what I asked. I asked if it was pointed at his house.

So you installed that after he put all those cameras in and you discussed it with him even though you are (understandably) cross about his cameras?

I did go to a garden centre with high hopes of coming back with bamboo and planters. After speaking with really helpful staff , and describing the boundary they also suggested a pergola and fast growing clematis etc. awaiting companies to quote this week for the work.