The Landlord Lens - Can Landlords Legally Install Security Cameras?

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Can landlords install security cameras on their rental property?In this episode of Landlord Lens, we break down what the law actually says, where security cameras are allowed, where they cross the line, and how landlords can protect their property without violating a tenant's right to privacy.If you've ever wondered whether security cameras are worth it or what's actually legal, this episode will help clear up the confusion.

What if for me as a landlord it was a non-negotiable that an external facing camera existed? And the next tenant came in and said, I actually don't want that camera. Am I in my rights to say no? It needs to be there. I think the key with a camera is to put it in the lease agreement. And then make sure you have the conversation about it before the tenant signs lease. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. Today we're going to talk about can landlords film you in your rental?

I think specifically we're going to talk about security cameras. Oh, right, security cameras, my bad. Yeah, because landlords don't show up filming at your rental for sure. Okay, okay. So it's actually a much more nuance than that. It's not whether landlords can film you in the rental. It's what are the guidelines around having security cameras on your rental? Exactly.

This is going to be a totally different episode than I thought. Well, John, buckle up because it's not as exciting as what you were thinking about in the bushes. Okay, so security cameras, before we hopped on, we actually were talking about your experience with security cameras and rentals, especially externally facing ones, which is the main type of security camera you're going to have. Yeah, absolutely. So one of my rentals is actually a condo. It's in the second floor. And our tenant had had some confrontations, I'd say, or some comments were made to her that were inappropriate from one of the other residents of the complex. And so she wasn't feeling great about it. She actually ended up calling the police because I care. I got involved.

and was like, what is the, you know, what are the police need to take action on this? And they basically said, without a recording or anything, and because the person didn't actually trespass on the property, nothing could be done. And so I talked to her and I said, how about we set up a camera? Would that make you feel, feel better about the situation? Because she's an awesome tenant. I don't want her to, don't want her to move out. And we set up a camera at the door facing outward, right, on the entrance.

And then I actually gave her access to that. camera. So she has access to it, all the footage and everything like that is hers. Gotcha. Okay. So there was a situation that led you to believe, and police to believe that a camera would help her situation significantly. She basically requested it. You install the camera. Yeah. And it gave her a sense of security, which I'm all for. Yeah, absolutely. It'd be like renting out a condo without locks that's sort of in that same category of things. Exactly. So, okay. So that's in the case where the tenant requests it. Do you think you're going to keep the security camera there ongoing after the Senate moves out? Certainly not without telling the tenant and asking if they want it. Honestly,

well, I care very much about my investment properties and how they're going. I'm not in the business who are interested at all on spying on my tenants. Yeah. And so, yeah, I would position it as an amenity for any incoming tenants. And if they decided they didn't want it, they weren't comfortable with it, remove it. Okay, so it's an amenity. You're going to give them access and remove it if they're they're not comfortable. You're not going to let it get in the way of a good tenant. Yes, absolutely. Can you imagine any situations where you would want the security camera, and I think a lot of landlords come in it from this way, you'd want the security camera to keep an eye on the property itself and the safety of the property itself. I understand the desire for that.

It's the same reason landlords will do drive vies of their properties, right? It's actually a reason why I do a lot of the maintenance myself. It gives me an opportunity to go in if there is a problem and fix something as well as just check out the general. wear and tear on the property. So I understand wanting to do that. I think though part of being the rental business is also trusting the tenant, right? Yeah. And if you have a tenant that you can't trust, you got to think about really how you're selecting those tenants because you're going to drive yourself crazy if you're trying to spy on your property at the end of the day. That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, we talked a little bit about the notifications for the thing you put on there.

And when you say drive yourself crazy, I think of that, you know, push notification of someone arriving or something like that. You had to turn those off basically, right? Yeah, exactly. Turned off all notifications that I would get. She has full access to enable the notifications for herself. If that makes her feel comfortable, I honestly don't know how she set it up on her end. But yeah, for me, I want whatever information is necessary for me to provide a good

at home to the tenant, and I want my tenants to feel secure in that space. Now, if there was a situation where, let's say, there was damage happening to the house, not from my tenant, but from others, right? So in a part of town where you have to worry about broken windows or vandalism or anything like that, I think my approach would be to tell the tenant why I'm installing the security camera, go ahead and install a security camera so that I have evidence of anything that is happening to the property, which also benefits the tenant, right? If the property is being damaged, vandalized by non-tenants, the tenant will benefit from knowing and stopping and preventing that. That makes a lot of sense. And I think there's a constant theme here because if someone

clicks on this video and they're expecting to see us talk about, oh, this, you know, it's crazy landlords putting cameras in the hallways and private areas of your house, it's actually a totally different perspective we're taking. We're taking actually, we're on the same team as the tenant in every case. Yes. preventing vandalism also prevents, you know, the types of person that might try to break in and burglarize the tenant's home and your property. And so it's being on the same team of the tenant and thinking of the security camera as part of that. Yeah, absolutely.

But you've got to make sure to position it that way to your tenant, right, so that they understand that. The same goes for, you know, another location if you're a multi-unit building and there's a shared entrance, right? Legally, you can put a security camera in there. Once again, I think it's valuable to explain to your, all the tenants. in that building, why that security camera exists, and where possible, based on technology, actually give your tenants access to that camera. So I see what you're saying there. And I think if I were living in an apartment building with like 20 units and walked into

that entry unit or entryway and saw a camera, no questions. Makes sense. Yeah. It's probably walls where my mail is. Like, of course, camera makes sense. But if I'm like co-living with three people and we're on three different leases, then it starts to get a little strange to see like in the foyer of a house. a camera in the corner. That's a little different.

100%, like room rentals, for example, right? I've had room rentals in those situations. I would not put a camera in the house. You're just too mixed in with their actual living habits. If a camera at the entrance pointing outwards towards the street, towards the yard, I think once again, that can be positioned as security. Yeah. Okay, so we're talking a lot about the value of camera to the tenant,

a value of the camera to the landlord. or basically for the tenant, right? Yeah. You also, though, have this legal infrastructure around, in particular, audio. You may, you know, if you watch cop shows, you hear about two-party consent states and one-party consent states, and that actually applies in this situation. Yeah, it turns out audio, recording audio,

and keeping that is sticky based on where you're located. And so, honestly, it's probably best just not to do. Yeah. Not to have access to. Gotcha. Okay, so install the cameras for the tenant's benefit, only don't try to intrude on their private affairs because we're all humans. And turn off audio on the cameras because nothing really good can come from that.

Yeah. And you'd hate to be in a situation where you're actually utilizing a camera for a good purpose, right? Like a security incident or something like that. And you're using a camera to show law enforcement on behalf of your tenant on behalf of your property. And that be thrown out because audio was captured. Cool. Okay.

So I'm going to, before we wrap, throw up. a couple tester questions from landlords who might be kind of skeptical of the position we're taking here here's the first one like let's say I'm a landlord and I want to put a camera in the backyard because the last time I went out for maintenance I saw some cigarettes sitting out there and I have in the lease that you're not allowed to smoke at the property what would you say to me I'd say don't do it if you're if you're putting it in place for the sole purpose of catching breaking a lease as opposed to security of the premise, you've got to rethink that. And I think it's worth just sharing with your tenant that, hey, I saw cigarettes out back on the

property. Also, most likely it's legal for your tenant to smoke in the backyard. So chill out. Yeah, but it's in my lease. I don't know if you can put no smoking on the property in your lease. Maybe you can. Well, okay. Now, what about, can, should I use any of the information I can get from the camera in

an eviction proceeding? I don't know about the legality of that. Typically, though, an eviction proceeding is going to happen in most states because of a failure to pay rent as the primary. And so you shouldn't need a camera to know that people aren't paying rent. Other lease violations like pets on the property, having guests there that aren't supposed to be there, I would say if the tenant knows and has access to the camera as well, they know it's in place, then I think it's safe to reference that you had the camera that caught X, Y, Z. So kind of a hard question here

because I can imagine some of our audience maybe having this thought. You suggested that the condo, right, that you mentioned earlier, you would remove that camera in the case that the next tenant didn't want it anymore. What if, for me, as a landlord,

it was a non-negotiable that an external-facing camera existed and the next tenant came in and said, I actually don't want that camera. Can I, am I my rights to say, they know it needs to be there? Yeah, there's good reasons why you'd want that camera there to protect vandalism and the property.

And so I think the key with a camera is to put it in the lease agreement and then make sure you have the conversation about it before the tenant signs lease, right? And if the tenant is in a position where no, they want that camera removed, you have the option to decide as a landlord, do I want this tenant, you know, because of their criteria,

because of their fit, or am I going to say no, the lease is going to have this, and therefore this isn't the right tenant for me? Gotcha. Okay. So you put it on the conversation before renting as a basically requirement, is this security camera's got to stay. If they say no, you have the opportunity to say no. Yes, exactly.

Okay. And I think from that tenant's point of view, is they're thinking about why would I say no, right? And one of them is I would be worried that the footage that you have access to might be used against me as a lease violation question. And so how should we think about cameras as being used to prove lease violation questions in the case of a dispute or an eviction or anything like that? Yeah. So you have the camera in your lease. You've told the tenant that it exists, right? And they sign the lease with an understanding that there is a camera on the property. Maybe even given them access to the camera. Exactly. They may even have the footage. It is your right in that case to use it for lease violations, right? What I would say, though, or what I would say, though, or what I would. I'd cautioned landlords out there is like you're going to drive yourself crazy if you're watching

footage to try to catch lease violations. And so for your own sanity, as well as your relationship with your tenant, I think you do have to be very careful leaning on that. You can imagine, right, how your tenant is going to feel if you are constantly bringing up small little tiki-tacky lease violations that you only know because there's a camera there, the tenant is going to feel like their privacy is absolutely being invaded and you're just going to erode the relationship that you have. Yeah, that makes sense. I know I'd feel that way as a tenant.

Absolutely. And I can't imagine how miserable that would make the landlord to just constantly be watching those clips over and over and peering and zooming in. And if you're concerned, in your lease, there are different provisions for entering the property, right? Doing a walkthrough. And so you can always utilize one of those.

Yep. You can always drive by the property from the road. and just look at it, right? If you have no pets and there's dogs in the front yard, that's reason to ask the tenant, what's going on, right? And have the conversation. Awesome. Cool.

Well, I think we covered pretty much everything about security cameras when it relates to being a landlord. Can you think of anything else you want to share? I think it's the same with security cameras as it is any amenity in a property. You should just ask yourself, would you want to live there with your family? Right. And if you wouldn't, because of the invasion of privacy, right, if you kind of flipped it over, if you felt like it was going to invade your privacy, or you feel like you'd want certain stipulations around that camera's use,

then have the conversation with your tenant, document it, get it in the lease, and cover your own ass. Well, thanks so much for tuning in, everybody. If you have a story involving one of your rentals and a security camera, we want to hear about it in the comments, just like Seamus shared. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you guys next week. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.