Landlord Security Camera Laws: What Is Allowed?

Across the United States, a landlord may install video cameras in shared common areas like hallways, lobbies, parking lots, and laundry rooms for security. A landlord may never place a camera inside a tenant's private unit, a bathroom, or any space with a reasonable expectation of privacy. Hidden cameras there are criminal voyeurism, and recording audio can trigger wiretap law.

Jurisdiction scope: This page explains the national framework for landlord video surveillance of rental property, including the common-area rule, the inside-unit prohibition, and the audio overlay. It is general legal information, not legal advice. For your state's recording-consent rule, see that state's recording laws page.

Can a Landlord Install Security Cameras?

Yes, in the right places. There is no single federal statute on landlord cameras. The rule comes from state voyeurism and unlawful-surveillance statutes, state landlord-tenant law, and the common-law reasonable expectation of privacy test. Cameras are permitted in shared and common areas such as exterior entrances, hallways, stairwells, lobbies, parking lots, and laundry rooms, because tenants do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy there and landlords often have a duty to keep common areas safe. A Connecticut legislative analysis concluded that state law implicitly allows landlords to surveil hallways and stairwells of multi-family rentals for exactly that reason.

The hard limit is the private space. A landlord may not place a camera inside a tenant's dwelling unit, in a bathroom, in a bedroom, or in any area where a person would reasonably expect privacy. That line does not move based on who owns the building.

Hidden Cameras Inside a Unit Are a Crime

Secret cameras in private rental spaces are a criminal offense, typically a felony, in essentially every state. Florida's video-voyeurism statute expressly names the interior of a residential dwelling as a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy. New York treats secretly recording a person in a bedroom or bathroom as unlawful surveillance in the second degree, a class E felony. Several statutes specifically reject the building-owner defense. California provides that it is not a defense to criminal invasion of privacy that the recorder was a landlord, tenant, employer, or business partner.

A lease clause cannot fix this. No lease can authorize recording in a bathroom or bedroom over a criminal statute. If a tenant discovers a hidden camera inside their unit, that is almost certainly a crime regardless of any language buried in the rental agreement.

State	Rule	Authority
Connecticut	Common-area hallway and stairwell cameras implicitly allowed	OLR 2022-R-0234
Florida	Video voyeurism covers the interior of a dwelling	Fla. Stat. 810.145
New York	Unlawful surveillance in bedroom or bathroom is a felony	Penal Law 250.45
California	Landlord status is not a defense to secret recording	Penal Code 647(j)
Michigan	Crime to record in a private place; owner-security exception	MCL 750.539d
Texas	Invasive visual recording in private spaces is a felony	Penal Code 21.15

Audio Recording Raises the Bar

Video and audio are treated separately, and audio is stricter. The federal Wiretap Act and state eavesdropping laws govern sound. In all-party-consent states such as California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Washington, recording tenants' conversations in an enclosed common area like a narrow hallway or a laundry room, without consent, can violate wiretap law even where a video-only camera would be lawful. This is why most rental security cameras record video only, or why landlords post visible signage where audio is captured.

Entry Rights Are Not Surveillance Rights

A landlord's statutory right to enter the unit for inspection or repair, usually with advance notice, is not a right to leave a recording device behind. Entering to fix a faucet does not authorize ongoing surveillance of the tenant's living space. Some states do recognize narrow exceptions. Michigan's statute, for example, shields owner-directed security monitoring in a residence unless it is done for a lewd or lascivious purpose, but that is unusual and should not be generalized to a separate tenant's private unit.

For short-term rentals, the rules are tightening. Airbnb banned all indoor cameras globally, effective April 2024, regardless of disclosure, and outdoor cameras must be disclosed. A hidden indoor camera in a short-term rental is also criminal voyeurism under state law, so the platform ban and the criminal statute point the same direction.

Watch out: Disclosure of plainly visible common-area video cameras is best practice but not always legally required. Covert audio in an enclosed common area is a different matter and can be unlawful on its own. Keep cameras video-only in shared spaces unless you have consent.