Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence

Can my neighbor install a camera that looks into my yard? Many people may feel uncomfortable when a camera placed on a neighbor’s property looks into their property. However, this may not be illegal and can continue so long as there is a legitimate purpose for doing so. This was an issue in the case Coons v. Henderson, 1D21-3675 (Fla. 1st DCA February 8, 2023).

In this stalking injunction case, neighbor 1 was accused of stalking neighbor 2 by placing a camera above the fence belonging to neighbor 2. Neighbor 2 was concerned that the camera looked directly into his pool area. Neighbor 1 testified that he installed the camera in order to protect himself against claims from neighbor 2 that neighbor 1 damaged neighbor 2’s fence. An injunction was entered against neighbor 1 and he appealed.

The appellate court noted that the trial court made a finding that neighbor 1 installed the camera for protection. It held “This finding established that Appellant had a legitimate purpose for installing the camaras and precluded the entry of the stalking injunction. Yet, the trial court proceeded to find that the location of the cameras made Appellant’s purpose illegitimate. The trial court’s determination that the protection Appellant and his wife sought could be provided by cameras installed below the fence line did not convert the legitimate purpose of protection into the harassment necessary for the entry of a stalking injunction. See § 784.048(2), Fla. Stat. (2021) (noting that stalking occurs when a person ‘willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows, harasses, or cyberstalks another person’) (emphasis added); § 784.048(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (2021) (defining ‘harass’ to mean ‘engag[ing] in a course of conduct directed at a specific person which causes substantial emotional distress to that person and serves no legitimate purpose’) (emphasis added); see also O’Neill v. Goodwin, 195 So. 3d 411, 413 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016) (explaining that courts have generally held that contact is legitimate if there is a reason for the contact other than to harass the victim).”

Schedule your meeting with a Miami family law attorney to understand what can be done in your case.