Tenant finds creepy camera in his Brisbane rental property, and real estate agent doesn’t know how it got there or who installed it
- Mom finds security camera inside her new rental
- The real estate agent doesn’t know how he got there.
A woman moving into a new rental property was horrified to discover that a security camera in her kitchen could watch her family’s every move.
The mother contacted her real estate agent in Brisbane to complain and was told no one had any idea how the surveillance device got there or who installed it.
Eventually, the agent assured him that the camera was only accessible through the home’s Wi-Fi and could be disabled.
But these reassurances did nothing to calm the tenant’s nerves about the creepy camera.
A woman moving into a new rental property was horrified to discover a security camera (pictured) in her kitchen potentially watching her family’s every move.
“We are a very private family, so it is extremely scary for us to know that we are being watched,” he said. yahoo news.
“(The agent) assured me that it is not active and can only be activated by the person who has their Wi-Fi connected.”
But the mother insisted that she is not comfortable with the threat to her family’s privacy.
“In fact, I feel extremely overwhelmed and insecure,” the mother said.
An email from the agent continued to try to reassure the family that they were safe at home and provided steps on how to take control of the device on Sunday.
“These are the instructions to reset the security system to factory settings so no one else has access,” the email said.
They also gave him instructions on how to uninstall the device, which the agent repeatedly claimed was not currently active.
The agent assured him that the camera was only accessible through the house’s Wi-Fi and could be disabled, but that didn’t help calm the tenant’s nerves.
Dr. Vanessa Johnston, a property law expert, explained that even if the camera was not active or accessible to anyone else, it is still illegal for rental homes to have any type of surveillance equipment installed.
“I’m not a privacy expert, but in terms of property law, someone using a camera in that situation would be something called a quiet enjoyment violation,” he said.
“So in every lease, including standard residential leases, the landlord has an obligation to provide quiet enjoyment.”
‘Being watched all the time isn’t exclusive possession, it’s not really what they’ve been given. So it’s a violation of quiet enjoyment.
