Can you videotape your neighbor's house and yard?

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Attorney Tom Olsen is host of the Olsen on Law Radio Show on in Orlando. You can reach Tom at 407-423-5561 or [email protected]. Tom has been answering legal questions on his radio show for over 35 years and has been practicing law in Orlando for 40 years.
The Olsen on Law Radio Show is America’s longest running legal radio show.
Produced by Professional Media Ideas. Call or text Chrissy Merrill at 321-207-8384 or by email at [email protected]

Transcript:
Attorney Tom Olsen: Can you videotape your neighbor's home and their yard, because that video that we did of that particular issue has got thousands and thousands of views. It may be our third or fourth most-watched video over the years. I think people are surprised to hear the answer is yes, your neighbor can videotape your home and your yard. There was one case where a neighbor put his video camera on a 12-foot tall pole specifically to shoot over the yard and into his neighbor's backyard. People are very surprised that that can be done. Nothing you can do about it.
Attorney Chris Merrill: Because they're doing it from their own?
Attorney Tom Olsen: Exactly. Yes.
Attorney Chris Merrill: You're right. A lot of people are surprised about that.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Yes. When I was researching about-- I knew that was a law but how do you describe this to people? There was one article that said that "Your rights as a property owner to put a camera on your property and point that camera anywhere trumps your neighbor's right to privacy." I do want to say one thing about that; I do want to qualify it. You do have a right to privacy in your bedroom, in your bathroom, where you often get dressed, and so your neighbor cannot point a camera through your bedroom window, your bathroom window, or any window where you're regularly getting dressed, but yes they can point it in your backyard, your house, et cetera.
I'm going to talk some more about that because I was thinking about why is that? Where does that legal theory come from? Why would the courts rule that way? I got some thoughts about it. The law does permit you to put up a video camera on your property and videotape your neighbor and your neighbor's house and your neighbor's yard? Yes, you can do that. I was thinking about the reason why and it is, first, let's compare it to property lines because in the law your property line is defined as going down to the center of the earth and going up into space.
Why is that important? Because it means that if your neighbor's tree limbs or your neighbor's tree roots, their tree comes over your property line, you've got a right to trim those tree branches, trim those tree roots as long as you're being responsible. Clearly, the same thing is not happening as far as videotaping is concerned.
I was thinking why is this, and part of it is it would just be practically impossible for law enforcement to stop somebody from videotaping your yard even if it's in the most innocent way because think about how many people have Ring Doorbells? If I had one it would be pointing right out front of my house, across the street, and hit my neighbor's house, how would I possibly stop it from videotaping my neighbor's house even if I wanted to?
Here's some people that are putting some twists on it. "What about a video with sound?" We know you can videotape your neighbor's backyard, can you have the sound going? I'm going to say the answer is probably yes. The bottom line is that if you're anywhere outside you cannot have an expectation of privacy. If somebody can see you with the naked eye, then they can videotape you with sound as well. It'd be my position.
Say, for example, if you're swimming in your backyard in the pool and you got a six-foot fence around it, if your neighbor wants to get up on a ladder and peep over the fence and watch you, then they can. Sounds creepy but they can.