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Is it illegal to post pictures of someone’s house? – Have you ever looked for houses online? Have you gone through various housing websites and seen those beautiful pictures of houses? Also, if you use Google Street View, you will probably find an image of your house there.
It can be a little disturbing for us to find out that someone has a picture of the exterior of your house, but the thing is, can you do anything about it?
So, is it illegal to take pictures of someone else’s house? The answer to this question might be a bit unsettling for you.
Technically, if we see, there is no rule as such for taking and posting pictures of someone’s house if the house is visible from the main street.
There can not be an expectation of privacy from the public streets. If your house is visible from the public street, anyone can take pictures of your house and it will not be illegal.
We cannot call it illegal or criminal unless and until it is being done for criminal or terrorist purposes. On the contrary, taking pictures of someone’s house from the inside or the garden, where privacy is expected, will be illegal.
We should also discuss why anyone would want to photograph your home in the first place.It can be so that the lender is aware of the situation of your house, your neighbourhood area, and your street conditions.
The photographs can also help the lender to know the estimated value of your house, apart from the additional comparable sales information by the real estate agent, so that the lender can substantiate the loan request process.
There are many exceptions for many things. Let us think about them once.
Exceptions to Rule for post pictures of someone’s house
Just like most legal issues, there are some exceptions to the rule regarding this particular topic as well.
These exceptions vary depending upon many factors, such as where the picture was originally taken from and also how it is being used.
Trespassing
The very important part here is whether the picture was taken on private property or not. If the picture is taken on private property and you trespassed the homeowner’s private property for the picture, you have already broken a law.
Furthermore, if you are trespassing and taking a picture of someone else’s private property, you will be into deeper problems. .
Commercial Use
The discussions we did above were purely in the context of taking pictures for personal use. Now, when it comes to using a picture for commercial use, even if it is being taken in a public area, the whole situation turns around.
You can face several issues when dealing with a picture for commercial use. For example, we can say that using it for commercial purposes without their consent can lead to filing a proper civil lawsuit.
Harassment
Now, coming to this very important point, it is one thing to take a picture of someone’s house from the public for some other purposes, but taking a picture of someone else’s house for the wrong intentions or the purpose of bullying or harassment is illegal and very wrong.
There are different laws for different countries, but clicking pictures of someone else’s house without their consent solely for bullying or harassing them falls under a harassment statute.
If It Is Illegal to Take Pictures of Someone Else’s House and Post Them on Social Media?
Attorney Smith told us it is illegal to do so. According to him, any and whenever you take a picture from someone else’s social media page, whether or not you are in the picture, and you repost it without the respective person’s permission, it is considered illegal.
It simply means that you are breaking the law. In his own words, “They are using the image when they do not have the permission to do so and it is copyright infringement.”
Why Would Someone Take a Picture of My House?
We can say that any money-lending company may send someone to click pictures of your house for the appraisal if you are going to sell it or maybe you are trying to modify your mortgage loan.
Even if you are falling behind on the dates given to you for returning the loan, even in that case, pictures of your house might be taken.
We can say in simpler words that, basically, if someone is not physically present on your property or trespassing, they can take pictures of anything and everything that they can see.
It is harsh, but if they can see the inside of your house or see your room or see you for that matter, pretty much anything and everything that they can see, they can click a picture of it if they are not physically present on the property.
You can ask that person to stop, but asking is all that you can do. Unless and until someone is not misusing the pictures or is not taking them with any criminal intentions, all you can do is just ask them to not do so if you are getting uncomfortable.
We can also say that this situation is something similar to your neighbor’s security camera pointed towards your house.
Even in general conversation, you can always install Google Earth or Google Street View and lookup for your street area and you will see your house’s pictures. So technically, your house’s pictures are already there on the internet.
What’s funnier is that if you were out on your balcony at that time, sipping your coffee and the satellite was there when you were outside, the satellite may have snapped you. It is funny and weird, but the truth ultimately.
There are several examples available that can make you understand how it is not exactly illegal to take pictures of someone else’s house if you are not physically present on their property. For example, imagine you have gone out to the market for shopping.
There are houses built along the street of that market. You are out with your friends and cousins, you are having a lot of fun, and you all plan to stop to eat or drink.
You plan on buying ice cream, and while you are eating, you want to capture that happy moment with your friends or cousins.
So you take out your phone, switch to the front camera, and take a selfie. Now in that picture, it may be possible that the houses built along the street may have come into your picture. Here, there are no criminal or wrong intentions.
You were simply having a good time with your friends or cousins, and you just wanted to click a picture, so you did. It is not your problem or you are not at fault if, in the picture, the houses in the back came.
It may even be possible that someone was standing at the gate of their house at that time or maybe sitting on their balcony sipping their tea at that time and you clicked a picture. They may have come into that picture, but again, it was not intentional.
You may even go on to post that picture on your social media account, but you can’t be held responsible or accountable for this thing at this point.
You did not have any wrong criminal or terrorist intentions to click someone’s picture or someone’s house’s picture and then post it on social media.
This or any of these types of situations are purely unintentional and done at the moment. Nobody can be held responsible or held accountable in such situations.
We can safely say it’s not illegal, at least in such situations. Until and unless that person has any criminal intentions, you cannot do anything about it.
