Security Cameras in Rentals: Tenant vs. Landlord Rights

Your landlord can generally record video in shared areas such as entrances, lobbies, hallways, and parking lots, but has no general right to enter your unit to install a camera without your agreement, and secretly recording someone in a bedroom or bathroom is a crime in states such as New York and Florida. Audio is stricter: federal law bars recording a private conversation unless someone in it consents, and states such as Florida and Washington require every participant's consent. You can usually run your own cameras inside your home, but mounting a doorbell camera or recording shared spaces depends on your lease and the same recording laws.

Where your landlord can put cameras

Shared areas. Entrances, lobbies, hallways, stairwells, laundry rooms, and parking lots are open to every resident and visitor, so the law gives you little privacy there. Michigan's surveillance law, for example, protects "private places" and defines them to exclude any place that the public or a substantial group of the public can access. The federal Wiretap Act covers conversations, not silent video, so a video-only camera in a lobby does not fall under it.

Inside your unit. New York's attorney general states that tenants have a right to privacy within their apartments and that, except in an emergency, a landlord may enter only with reasonable notice, at a reasonable time, and with your consent, for repairs, services, or reasons the lease allows; if you refuse consent without good reason, the landlord can seek a court order. California limits entry to listed purposes such as emergencies, repairs, and showings, and does not allow general inspections. It requires written notice (24 hours is presumed reasonable) except in an emergency, when you agree at the time of entry, or for repairs you agreed to orally. Neither list includes entering to monitor you, so installing a camera inside your unit without your agreement falls outside those rules.

Bedrooms, bathrooms, and views into your home. Secret recording in these spaces can be a crime no matter who owns the building:

• New York makes it a class E felony to use or install an imaging device, for no legitimate purpose, to secretly view or record someone in a bedroom, bathroom, shower, or changing room without their knowledge or consent. The offense depends on where the person being recorded is, so it can reach a camera aimed into those rooms from outside, such as through a window.
• Florida's digital voyeurism law lists the interior of a home as a place where people expect privacy. Someone 19 or older who secretly records a person dressing or undressing there for gratification, profit, or to degrade them commits a third-degree felony.

If your building has a shared bathroom or changing area, such as in a rooming house, a camera there falls under the same laws.

When recording audio is illegal

The federal Wiretap Act makes it a crime to intercept a private conversation, meaning to record or listen in on it with a device, unless you are part of it or one participant consents. A spoken conversation is protected only when the speakers expect it is not being recorded and that expectation is reasonable in the setting. Penalties include a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

Some states require consent from everyone in the conversation:

• Washington bars recording a private conversation without the consent of all participants. Consent counts as given if one person announces the recording to the others and the announcement is captured on the recording.
• Florida allows recording a private conversation only when all parties have given prior consent, and a violation can be a felony.

If your landlord's hallway cameras capture sound, you can ask in writing whether audio recording is turned on and how residents consented to it. Check your own state's recording law before relying on any of these examples.

Can you install your own cameras?

Inside your unit, generally yes. You are the occupant, and a plug-in camera on a shelf does not alter the building. Michigan's law, for instance, exempts security monitoring in a residence done by or for the person who lives there, unless it is for a lewd purpose. Two legal limits apply:

1. Do not record roommates or guests in bathrooms or bedrooms. The voyeurism laws above apply to tenants too.
2. Limit audio. Federal law lets you record a conversation you take part in, but a camera that records roommates or guests talking while you are not in the conversation needs one of them to consent. In states that require every participant's consent, such as Washington, you need everyone's agreement, and announcing the recording on the recording itself counts there.

If you share the unit, tell roommates where each camera is and write any agreement on placement into your roommate agreement.

Doorbell and hallway cameras need more care. A video doorbell mounts on a door or frame the landlord owns and often records a hallway or entry that others use. Before you drill, hardwire, or stick anything to the door, read your lease's alterations clause, and get written permission if the clause requires consent for changes or attachments. Point the camera at your own entry rather than a neighbor's door or window, and switch off sound recording if it would capture neighbors' conversations.

If your rental came with a camera or video doorbell connected to the landlord's account, ask in writing for it to be removed, disabled, or moved to your account, and keep the reply.

What to do about an illegal or intrusive camera

1. Document it. Photograph the camera, its location, and its view, and note the date you found it. Leave it in place so police can examine it, covering the lens if it views a private room.
2. Ask in writing. Send the landlord a dated letter or email asking that the camera be removed or re-aimed, and that any audio recording stop. Keep a copy.
3. Report hidden cameras in private rooms. A concealed camera in a bedroom or bathroom should go to local police, since it can be a felony in states such as New York and Florida.
4. Check how it got there. If the landlord entered without the notice your state requires (see when your landlord can enter), that is a separate violation. In California, a tenant can sue in small claims court for damages, and for a civil penalty of up to $2,000 per violation when the landlord significantly and intentionally broke the entry rules to pressure the tenant to move.

For how camera rules fit with your other protections, see the right to quiet enjoyment and your basic rights as a tenant.