Who sees the footage from security cameras in a residential co-op?
Aug. 22, 2014
As long as cameras cannot see into private apartments, they can be placed anywhere in a co-op, says a noted real estate attorney.
Technically, any member of the board of a residential co-op can see security camera footage, says an expert quoted at the NYC real estate insider's site, BrickUnderground. And as noted at the Graybar blog, though such footage is typically viewed in the case of an incident, there is no expectation of privacy in indoor public spaces.
As long as cameras cannot see into private apartments, they can be placed anywhere in a co-op, says real estate attorney Dean Roberts of Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus. However, while lobbies aren’t living rooms, people can generally expect the same kind of privacy as they would in any public space, he adds.
"This is the co-op version of the NSA debate: security versus privacy,” says Roberts. "While technically a board member could review security footage from a public area at any point, that’s not usually how it works, our experts say."
