Video Privacy

Selling a home can be stressful. Typically, when you put your house on the market you’ve worked hard to make your house look better for strangers than you do for your own family. It can be frustrating when those strangers not only don’t make an offer on your home but then they don’t even give any feedback on why they didn’t make an offer.  If they would only comment on a house the way they do on a San Angelo LIVE! post!

Nowadays we have some great smart home devices that can record video and audio! (No, you don’t always have Manny Diaz, video guy extraordinaire, in your house!) Think about it, the doorbell, Alexa, baby monitors, and of course cameras. So of course, while your house is showing to potential buyers you think to yourself, I could just pop in on a device and listen for my OWN feedback, right? WRONG!

Both the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and Section 16.02 of the Texas Penal Code say that you must have the consent of at least one individual who is part of the conversation. This is commonly referred to as the one-party rule.

As tempting as it is when your house is showing to potential buyers, and you are not in the home, it is illegal to monitor their conversations. If you’re not a participant in the conversation or have permission from a person in the conversation, you can’t record or listen.

Illegal recording is a felony offense in Texas. Anyone who has been recorded in violation of the law can file a civil suit to potentially recover $10,000 for each occurrence, plus damages attorney fees, and court costs.

As a buyer how do you protect yourself? For starters, while you’re in the house or on the property, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Also, save talking about price and possible negotiations until you’re out of the house. It’s always better to assume that someone is listening and not show all of your cards!