Personal despise of Ring doorbells

I really hate Ring doorbells!

Here's why:

1) No one with a ring doorbell will answer the door when I knock, because they think I am a solicitor and not HOA president. I do see the upside: It's impossible to knock on doors and get a recall petition or CC&R revision petition signed because of the huge quantity of ring doorbells. We have figured out workarounds to this, so it's a minor issue.

2) The bigger one: People seem obsessive about what is going on outside their house. Homeowners post videos of people doing nothing wrong and say "does anyone know this person? What is he doing?". For example, one person walked up to read the house number and then walked away. This flipped one homeowner out.

It's happened time and time again. Kids skipping down the street. A person looking sideways when walking. A person walking past a house 3x. All of these were filmed and then posted to social media.

It's fine people do this, it just seems unnecessary.

I finally got tired of the non-issues people were filming and posting to social media and left the group.

Well said. Michael is only thinking about himself and hasn't considered the benefits that others may see in having a Ring Doorbell. For example:

1.) Keeping an eye on their home while out of town.
2.) Women or men that are concerned with their physical safety.
3.) People that have you children old enough to stay at home while their parents are away.
4.) People that are concerned with break ins while they are away and want to protect their home and provide police with leads if it happens.

The issue he has raised is not related to the technology. Unfortunately, many people love to post on social media. Michael do you have any real problems today or are you just bored?

I don't have a Ring doorbell, and I don't answer the door either - for the same reason I won't answer the phone unless I know who's calling.

'Tain't the technology, it's the owner. :-) This particular owner also believes that individual HOA board members should not be conducting association business one-on-one with homeowners. If it's important, it should be documented and come from the entire board.

My big concern about any "smart" technology is privacy. In addition, anything connected to the internet can be hacked. For some, the benefits provided by the technology will outweigh their concerns. For others it's the opposite. And people's individual assessments can change as their circumstances change.

I agree with that survey!

I have my own opinions regarding Ring type devices which need not be shared--

However . . . I have been the President of two different HOAs (238 homes in one, and 105 homes/sub association of a 9,000+ home master association) in which we have resided in north Texas. As President, unless arrangements were made in advance, I never found it necessary or desirable to knock on the door of an owner in my official capacity. Nor have any of our Board members.

My reasons:

1. I personally believe it intrusive, if not rude, to attempt to engage someone regarding HOA business without an appointment beforehand the purpose of which is clearly understood.

2. I understand there may be times when door-to-door canvassing for signatures may be desirable. Those should be few and far between--frankly about as far apart as the Cowboys are from a Super Bowl appearance (25+ years). I have lived in 2 HOAs in Texas and 1 in California. My wife lived in 1 in Texas before we were married. In over 25 years in those associations, it has never been necessary for anyone to knock on anyone's door to discuss securing a signature without an appointment made in advance.

3. We have been advised by the community liaison police officers which serve our communities to avoid as much as possible unannounced visits to association owners to discuss association business--emergencies excepted. There are simply too many (fortunately very few in actual number) owners who have strong negative opinions regarding their HOA, it is best not to engage with them unannounced or unsolicited.

Is it the brand you hate or security cameras in general.

I ask because you specifically stated one brand of a doorbell camera and there are many brands.

It's not a bad thing to be aware of your surroundings and who is or is not regularly in the neighborhood.
In my day, we called that being a good neighbor (and that was before technology changed how it was done).

Aside from any potential wiretapping laws that could be violated, and what someone does with that information after the fact is entirely different. All I have to say about this issue is situational awareness. Be aware of your surroundings, don't discuss topics in front of a hot mic or camera.

If it is a matter of this homeowner using this information at a board meeting or at a board member or the PM, It might be time to get a legal opinion from your HOA attorney
and send this person a gentile reminder that her actions could have legal consequences.

If I recall, the individual was not spying.

The camera happened to catch a conversation when it was motion activated and the homeowner became informed.

Since door cameras and other security devices are pretty common, people should be aware that they may be recorded when they're outdoors. If you're on common area, you have no expectation of privacy. If you're standing on or close enough to someone else's property that they can record you, you should expect them to be interested in what's going on.

In fact, with smart phones being ubiquitous, you should expect to be recorded whenever you're outside your home - and if you own smart gizmos of any sort, you should expect to be recording inside your home as well.

It's the world we live in.

Regarding one-on-one conversations with homeowners if you're on the board, once upon a time we had an abrupt resignation by one of our board members. This was followed some days later by an email from the manager stating that if we wanted to communicate with the board and/or manager, we should use the email address set up for that purpose, citing liability issues. I don't know the details, but I know the players involved and can make a decent guess at the broad outlines of what happened.

If you're on the board, stop with the one-on-one undocumented conversations about association business - they're probably not helpful and are creating problems of their own.