January 2025
How secure are your condo hallways?
It can be easy for “guests” to sneak past security and through locked doors. Stairwell exit doors failing to close and lock on their own allow unobstructed access to any floor without detection. Building security camera coverage rarely includes hallways.
In this security vacuum, video doorbells offer a way for residents to protect themselves. Yet some condominium buildings have rules prohibiting this practice citing privacy protection.
Video doorbell cameras are a common addition to homes. They capture video of deliveries and those attempting to steal packages. Police regularly request access to video doorbell footage when investigating crimes. Anyone crossing the camera’s path is captured on video. In a high-rise building, other residents on a floor may not want the image of them or their guests captured on someone else’s video.
In a condominium building, you cannot unilaterally do what you’d like in the common hallways including installation of video doorbells. This requires permission of the board.
Video doorbells have become popular because of their effectiveness at protecting the home and personal property. They can be an effective security precaution in communities where there are security concerns. A portable and relocatable video camera offers an effective way to identify the source of temporary or not-so-temporary problems without the high cost of more extensive security. For a few hundred dollars condo management can address smaller and isolated resident concerns where existing building security systems are less effective.
Video doorbells create a conflict between one person’s desire for security and another person’s desire for privacy. Nobody wants their comings and goings monitored.
Some condominium corporations disallow video doorbells although this becomes problematic when these same communities fail to ensure hallways are secure. A more practical and reasonable response recognizing the value of video doorbells is to allow their use subject to restrictions on audio recordings and how the camera is angled to ensure no other unit doors are captured on video images.
While recording of residents and guests in common areas is improper and incompatible with peaceful co-existence in a high-rise building, video doorbells provide security when building systems are inadequate. When a condominium corporation installs a video security system in hallways, no owner should feel the need to install an individual monitoring system in common areas near their doorway.
