The RING brand Doorbell./lock

Legal questions require a review by an attorney. If this was placed by your neighbor, have you discussed your concerns with him/her?

Anything outside your front door is public. So if your expectation of privacy is pretty much limited inside your door. Reality is that you are probably being video taped or recorded about anywhere you go now a days. Pump gas? On cameras. Stop at a red light? On camera At a cross walk? on camera. Stop at an ATM? On camera. Drop kids off at school? on camera. Go to Walart? On camera. Take a walk in your neighborhood? On camera if someone has a security system.

So expectation of privacy is a bit ridiculous at this point. Heck the computer I am typing on? I am ON CAMERA! Sounds like a neighbor/neighbor issue the HOA needs to stay out of.

Although this is a common thought, and certainly applicable for video, when audio recording comes into play a whole different set of rules are used.

Actually, I also think that this is a neighbor v neighbor issue and not an HOA issue.

Outside a condo unit's door is not "public," as Melissa puts it. It's common area, thus condo board can make rules about them and we have a few in our condo HOA. One, per the fire dept., is that we can't have any welcome mats, potted pants, furniture, etc. which might impede Emerg. personnel during their work.

Since the exterior of our front doors are the HOA's responsibility to maintain, we may not hardwire door bells, or attach door knockers or door stops to them. So our own rules may prohibit such a device as Alex's HOA has deeding on how it's attached to the owner's front door or hallway wall.

So, for Alex, are front doors the HOA's responsibility to maintain? Or Owners'?

Otherwise, I tend to agree that you need an attorney's advice.

If the door is the HOA's responsibility, the sign would be prohibited.

My condo board voted to approve RING a few months ago. We have several now and many of the owners are interested in getting one. Seasonal residents are getting a discount on their insurance for having one. Not one complaint. The way our condos are located I think it is a good idea, for others with closer doors it may not be.

I completely disagree.

I also own the same system you have.
I can say for certain that it is sold in TN, VA, MD and DC. More then likely, it is sold in all 50 States.

MD requires consent of all parties to a conversation
TN, DC and VA requires you to be part of the conversation (but only 1 party consent)

Alex, do NOT neglect the question of who is responsible for maintaining your condo front doors? If the HOA, your HOA may have rules against installing anything that needs to be hardwired, or anything that must affixed with screws, etc. That's our rules, but our front doors are in interior halls. Maybe yours aren't?

What do your docs say, Alex?

Do the doors have peepholes/viewers?
Can someone standing inside the door hear the conversations of the neighbour?
If either is "yes" one would have to ask if the neighbour has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that location.
Legal question for the courts, my personal opinion is no, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy there. Don't want to be heard, go elsewhere with your conversations.

I agree with Tim. I'm not raising the privacy issue.

I'm reporting that my HOA's Rules & Regs do not permit anything attached, that penetrates the doors, to the exterior of our front doors (interior hallways) other than what's original (peephole, original door handle). We may install combo locks. This is common among high rises in my urban 'hood.

I think you're confused, Dave. No one is or has tried to install cameras at any of our 200+ condo units' doors.

Alex from OK is the OP.

Mistook you for the OP, Kerry. Sorry.

It is a tough one.. so... we are going to take the stand that any combination locks that are already on the doors... will have to send in permission request for those types of locks.. They will undoubtedly be approved.. but the RING will not be approved.

When I get to the office tomorrow, I will copy that section and send it

Thank you, Dave. I seem to have trouble encouraging Alex to tell us what his docs say.

Later, I will send two sections in our CC&Rs on this subject.... and also will let you know of the outcome

I am going to send another answer later when the final decision is made. The OWNER is responsible for the door but JUST beyond the paint on the outside of the door and the normal handle/latch...... Those combination locks built into the handle... or/and the RING are not authorized without an ARC to excuse them.....We will come up later with the final decision but for the moment, this is probably going to be the decision.

If your concern about door security

I am using the same.!

Shocking since you're replying to yourself!

Spam.

Our Board recently updated our rules & regulations to allow the installation of RING security sensors. The unit owner must submit an architectural change request. We were very specific about how it could be mounted. The one style simply mounts on the existing doorbell with the same screws. Other styles require some other kind of attachment. Our rule says that they shall be attached with double-sided removeable tape onto the existing frame of the storm door (not a common element), or on the garage door trim. NO screws, nails, glue, or other methods that would mar the common element, interfere with painting or maintenance, or scar or discolor the paint will be approved. We also said that any device that emits an audible noise will not be approved. Fortunately, the front doors of our units are far enough apart that questions about invasion of privacy did not become an issue. Be advised that there are other manufacturers of similar devices. We will review all requests, and they will be approved, or disapproved, on a case by case basis.

I would make a call to the district attorney and see what they say. but also make sure that the security camera is positioned in a way that it can catch only the rented apartment, and it will not violate the privacy of other tenants, their guests, and the neighborhoods. Otherwise, you are very likely to have legal issues with the security camera installed around the apartment. Also if possible turn on the sound feature. May also want to talk to your neighbor and see if they would like for you to monitor there door and let them know if anyone is going in or out.?

I am having the same type of issue here in California, I recently purchased a condo in an older association and along with me there have been at 6-7 new owners (out of 20 total units) that have bought in alongside me within the last year.

The building is in pretty rough shape, and more than a few of the new owners paid market value and some and a few of us (myself included) who bought privately direct from the old owners, also most of the units in the building have never been remodeled since the 60's so every one of us new owners spent a small fortune remodeling our units happily we all the area and the charm of the building...
And we were all aware of buying into an HOA but we were not expecting a board like this.

So that being said, we have nothing in our HOA that states we can not have cameras.
There is a board of 3 members, two of those board members( who do not live on site they are renting their units out) own multiple units so whenever we've seen in the last year there is a vote there is no winning and they control everything.Because they literally own so many of the votes.

We have had a few incidents since we've been here over the last year, i.e. car break ins,
a neighboring property had a loose dog that came and attacked an owner on our property and the obvious porch pirate stealing packages .. along with homeless people camping in common areas and sometimes in the elevator. Some of us new owners have installed ring doorbells and blink cameras in our doorways so we can see in front of our doors(and a few those doors point down the hallway due to the direction of the door, but those do not see into any windows or doorways) all of our doors are set in, and all of our doors and walkways are open to the public so anyone can just come in off the Street.

Even though most of the owners on site are OK with the cameras there are the two board members above who keep saying it's a privacy issue (again public common area where there isn't a reasonable expectation of privacy) and now they plan on voting and changing the CC&R's, which we really shouldn't spend the money on because our funds are severely depleted and we have bigger things in need of the time and money like plumbing issues ect.

The new owner's all feel that the board does not want change and are doing this just to spite us and abuse power. What we are concerned about here is our safety and protecting our property and we feel that the A/V devices and the technicality of the law is what the board is going to use to make this change happen just because they can.
We all feel defenseless and defeated and more than a few of us are staring to regret the purchase of our homes.
It's like the CC&R's don't matter because if they don't like something they are just going to vote to change it. They are even considering a removal of our security doors which from my understanding have been installed by previous owners many years ago.

We are all looking for any loophole to be able to keep our rings.

Thank You.

https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/Hallway-Cameras