For Sale ad includes full picture of my house

endofrainbow

Hi,

Neighbour's house just went up for sale and I noticed on the ad that my house is visible in all the pictures - not comfortable with this.

On Google Images, I've blurred my house .

Could I ask the Estate Agent to remove my house from the pictures?

You have little for worrying about.

Timberrrrrrrr

endofrainbow wrote: »

Hi,

Neighbour's house just went up for sale and I noticed on the ad that my house is visible in all the pictures - not comfortable with this.

On Google Images, I've blurred my house .

Could I ask the Estate Agent to remove my house from the pictures?

Picture was taken on a public road, not much you can do about it.

diceyreilly

endofrainbow wrote: »

Hi,

Neighbour's house just went up for sale and I noticed on the ad that my house is visible in all the pictures - not comfortable with this.

On Google Images, I've blurred my house .

Could I ask the Estate Agent to remove my house from the pictures?

No?
A photo taken in a public place can go up online weather your house is in it or not.

Xterminator

Hi Op

You own the house, but not image rights etc. So you have no 'rights' here.

you could ask the EA to retake the photos. anyone can. they would be within their rights to tell you to go an take a jump. Your not the customer.

If you have a good relationship with your neighbour you could politely express your concerns. If my neighbour asked nicely i would consider acquiescing to a request. Do you have a decent relationship there? There could be a cost element if EA is asked to reshoot photos. Offer to meet any costs and the should make the request go down smoother.

But if your bridges are burnt with this neighbour, i suggest you say nothing- as it would not be likely to produce desired results.

Smee_Again

Genuine question, what’s your fear here?

endofrainbow

Xterminator wrote: »

Hi Op

You own the house, but not image rights etc. So you have no 'rights' here.

you could ask the EA to retake the photos. anyone can. they would be within their rights to tell you to go an take a jump. Your not the customer.

If you have a good relationship with your neighbour you could politely express your concerns. If my neighbour asked nicely i would consider acquiescing to a request. Do you have a decent relationship there? There could be a cost element if EA is asked to reshoot photos. Offer to meet any costs and the should make the request go down smoother.

But if your bridges are burnt with this neighbour, i suggest you say nothing- as it would not be likely to produce desired results.

Thanks for the helpful response - main issue is car number plates are visible in the pictures. No issues with neighbours, I'd be happy if the number plates were blurred.

Dav010

endofrainbow wrote: »

Thanks for the helpful response - main issue is car number plates are visible in the pictures. No issues with neighbours, I'd be happy if the number plates were blurred.

Why is this an issue? Aren’t your number plates visible when you car is parked?

Gumbo

endofrainbow wrote: »

Thanks for the helpful response - main issue is car number plates are visible in the pictures. No issues with neighbours, I'd be happy if the number plates were blurred.

Car number plates can only link a car to an address.
Sure the viewer of the website already knows your address based on the house for sale ad.

What’s the real reason your angry?

Does everyone who asks a question here warrant a grilling from people? The asked if it can be done, it can’t. There’s no need for making yourself feel big at their expense.

Gumbo

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Does everyone who asks a question here warrant a grilling from people? The asked if it can be done, it can’t. There’s no need for making yourself feel big at their expense.

Don’t see many posts grilling the OP in fairness. The OP expressed a concern in relation to their house in a photo that’s freely available on google or bing or similar. Even through the Ordnance Survey office.

Then they changed their tone from the house to car reg plates so maybe something else is up?

JohnnyChimpo

OP have you considered installing high-wattage lasers to blind any passers-by who try to take a look at your house from the road without permission

endofrainbow

Thanks for the replies - I asked a simple question and got answers - no need to berate me

Brussels Sprout

endofrainbow wrote: »

Thanks for the replies - I asked a simple question and got answers - no need to berate me

In fairness I think it's more curiosity from mos people. it's an unusual request/fear.

Smee_Again

I wonder if the OP is driving on yellow plates, quite a few of my neighbours wouldn’t be too happy with photos of UK registered cars outside their house.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

diceyreilly wrote: »

No?
A photo taken in a public place can go up online weather your house is in it or not.

Absolute nonsense.

If that’s the case, why can you request that Google blur out your house in Streetview and they’re legally obligated to do so if you do?

Queasy Tadpole

The EA should blur all car registrations. Contact them/neighbour.

dubrov

Alena Polite Puff wrote: »

Absolute nonsense.

If that’s the case, why can you request that Google blur out your house in Streetview and they’re legally obligated to do so if you do?

Google offer the service to avoid annoying their customers. I don't believe they are obliged to do so though.

Bikerman2019

Queasy Tadpole wrote: »

The EA should blur all car registrations. Contact them/neighbour.

Why should they?

Bubbaclaus

Have you considered building a 20 foot high wall around your house and driveway? Then you could ensure nobody can see your house.

Alena Polite Puff

Alena Polite Puff wrote: »

Absolute nonsense.

If that’s the case, why can you request that Google blur out your house in Streetview and they’re legally obligated to do so if you do?

Absolute nonsense is right - they're not legally obligated to, they just do it out of politeness.



OP, the estate agent may well take the photos again, but they will be out of pocket to do so, and your neighbour will be the one to pay for it.

You can ask them to blur your reg plates, and if the estate agent is able to do so they will, I'm sure, however if they have to get the photographer to do it, then, again, it will incur a cost that your neighbour will most likely be asked to cover.

In my experience, though, to be honest, blurring out your house, your numberplates, etc. just makes people more curious and will specifically go looking for that very thing when they're at the house.

I do also wonder, without attempting to berate you, as you put it earlier, what your actual/real issue is here. It's an anonymous internet forum, you can call me a nosey ignorant cu'nt and tell me I'm a waste of life, and no one will bat an eyelid. I still won't know who you are. So could you tell us why you really are aggrieved about this? I've come across it a few times (i photograph property) and whenever I get the opportunity to ask the person what their reasoning is, i can state honestly, that I never get an answer (and I don't ask like a smartass or anything, it's a legitimate question and I am always polite when I ask about it). I don't get too many opportunities to ask, though, in fairness.


I can understand when a commercial premises is being sold, like a warehouse or industrial unit, that a company may want their name blurred as it could look like the company is going out of business, but for private dwellings, I can't get my head around it.

Gumbo

Alena Polite Puff wrote: »

Absolute nonsense.

If that’s the case, why can you request that Google blur out your house in Streetview and they’re legally obligated to do so if you do?

Nonsense is right.
Google do it as a courtesy to people since they are a private organisation they can decide to blur/unblurr at any time.

The photo is of a private premises.

It's the location of the item in the picture, not the location of the photographer. Otherwise what's stopping you from being a peeping Tom?

CCTV cameras are on private property looking into public areas, you can't install a camera in the street looking at a house.

It's invasion of privacy. Any private property recorded must stand up to data protection scrutiny. In the op case it's not the main item of the image but it's still data and still subject to protection.

Tow

Smee_Again wrote: »

I wonder if the OP is driving on yellow plates, quite a few of my neighbours wouldn’t be too happy with photos of UK registered cars outside their house.

Might the Revenue knocking on their doors :-)

Gumbo

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

The photo is of a private premises.

It's the location of the item in the picture, not the location of the photographer. Otherwise what's stopping you from being a peeping Tom?

CCTV cameras are on private property looking into public areas, you can't install a camera in the street looking at a house.

It's invasion of privacy. Any private property recorded must stand up to data protection scrutiny. In the op case it's not the main item of the image but it's still data and still subject to protection.

It’s visible from the public domain.
Rear garden is where you can reasonably expect a right to privacy not the front elevation of the property.

Peeping toms can still call around in real life and peep through the bushes.....a photo on my home is not gonna stop a peeping tom ( sorry to all toms out there).

i_surge

Reg plates are always blurred out on tv. To the posters questioning the OP, why do you think that is? I don't think it is an unreasonable request.

House on its own, no but with visible reg plates yes. Harass the EA enough, talk some ****e about GDPR to scare them even if it is wrong and they will probably blur the plates. Sqeaky wheel gets the oil.

Gumbo

i_surge wrote: »

Reg plates are always blurred out on tv. To the posters questioning the OP, why do you think that is? I don't think it is an unreasonable request.

House on its own, no but with visible reg plates yes. Harass the EA enough, talk some ****e about GDPR to scare them even if it is wrong and they will probably blur the plates. Sqeaky wheel gets the oil.

Most EA’s and in particular the photographers that take these phots will understand GDPR, so made up nonsense will get you nowhere.

The photographs I take for my employer will include private houses, car reg plates etc and I can assure you, nothing gets blurred.
I will wait for the right moment though so that no people, particularly front facing shots and kids are not in the photo.

El Tarangu

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

The photo is of a private premises.

It's the location of the item in the picture, not the location of the photographer. Otherwise what's stopping you from being a peeping Tom?

CCTV cameras are on private property looking into public areas, you can't install a camera in the street looking at a house.

It's invasion of privacy. Any private property recorded must stand up to data protection scrutiny. In the op case it's not the main item of the image but it's still data and still subject to protection.

What you have just written has zero basis in any law in this country.

maestroamado

endofrainbow wrote: »

Thanks for the replies - I asked a simple question and got answers - no need to berate me

I actually agree with you but most people here know i am a bit odd at best, i think it is un-professional of the EA.
It is obviously a screenshot from google maps and i think its limited in what we can use.
I would make a nice polite call to the EA saying locals were asking if you were selling based on pics.
They may know someone who owns a camera and knows how to take pic...

DivingDuck

Deleted User wrote: »

I can understand when a commercial premises is being sold, like a warehouse or industrial unit, that a company may want their name blurred as it could look like the company is going out of business, but for private dwellings, I can't get my head around it.

Privacy is very important to some people, the same way religion or sport or having children or any other "value" is important to some but not to others. You don't have to understand it or feel the same way to be respectful of these things.

However, to explain maybe a little bit, some reasons why someone might not want their number plate/house visible to everyone includes:

— having a stalker
— having difficult or dangerous family members
— disliking the future prospect of data being scraped from such images to profile and track individuals
— being up to questionable or illegal shenanigans
— mental illness

People aren't going to want to say "Well, I have OCD and the fear will make me need to increase my medication" or "I don't want my ex-wife to find me and try to kidnap our son again" or "I really worry about my data being used against me by future corrupt governments or malicious criminals" or whatever. They'll just (hopefully politely) ask you to remove it without giving you their reasons. People who value privacy generally don't offer information when they don't have to. And you can acquiesce, or (hopefully politely) refuse, if you really need to refuse.

But why would you refuse? It takes probably five minutes to edit the images in photoshop to hide car regs or re-crop the shot to exclude the neighbour's house. It'll even give valid reason to refresh the listing.

Not to pick on you individually, because so many people here have expressed the same feeling, but what I can't get my head around is why people are so averse to doing a few minutes of work to accommodate a fairly inoffensive request that could potentially have very legitimate reasons behind it.

Muppet Man

If I had a Ferrari parked outside my house I wouldn’t be keen on letting people know where it was parked (for example)