Legality of someone photographing our propertry.

[AMann]

[QUOTE

I believe this may be what he is talking about:

Services

Data Collection Services for Farms and Agriculture in the United States and Canada . Order Soil Sampling, Imagery Flights, Plant Tissue Sampling, Sensor and Equipment Installation.

deveronuas.com

Is it legal for someone to photograph your property? Yes, there is no expectation of privacy outdoors, and of course the air is property of the FAA not you, so they can fly over you.

Is this buyer feeding you bad info to get you to lower your price? Maybe. But this is why you have a real estate lawyer...

That example uses passive imagery- the collection of a wide range of reflected light spectra to identify plant health. It’s a technology known as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). It cannot be used to penetrate the ground and determine what lies beneath as active remote sensing such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) can. Another active technique involves the use of lasers to determine ground heights, known as Lidar. This is more invasive than photographing the landscape since it uses actively transmitted laser light to directly sample distance information from the subject. The most invasive of all these active techniques is GPR, it directs penetrating microwave energy into the target to gather hidden information from beneath or inside it. It’s a kin to using a laser to bounce off the windows of a building to sense and interpret the vibrations on them from what the occupants are saying inside the building.

Again, I cry foul on the claim that a company used a drone to utilize active remote sensing technologies to analyze the OP’s property without their permission.

 

[Lastrexking]

I was pretty sure , in UK at least , the drone regs specifically say this kind of invasive ness is a no-no due to privacy laws here ... but I am not a US lawyer so who knows

That's not correct. In the UK those laws only cover people, not property - and even then, if the person is in a public place you can film them as much as you like.

 

[Olav van Gerven]

There are several aspects in this case.

# The supreme court has ruled, that under the first amendment (freedom of the press) it is legal to film and/or photograph anything and anyone as long as it is done from a public accessable point. So as long as the operator is not on the property, there is not an initial problem

# The supreme court also ruled (US vs Causby, 1943) that the owner of a property has a limited control over the airspace above his property. Now, this case was not directly related to drones, but it is considered to be an cornerstone of many other cases. The consequence is, that you have to keep a certain altitude to avoid tresspassing. Better said, to avoid that the owner of the property can tell you not to do it, because in most states, it is requiered to tell someone to leave before there can be issued a tresspass warning.

Now assuming that the operater was at a public accesable point and that he kept his altitude above the limits as defined in US vs Causby (possible adapted into state law), the last and most important question is, if the use of an invasive technologie (groundscan) regardless if by radar or ultrasound, is allowed. My opinion is, that this probably will be a problem. The imaging that (allegedly) shows what is under the grass is showing something that is not simply visible from a public point of view, niether standing on the street nor by using a normal drone. In consequence, these imagies would neither be covered under the 1st amendment (press) nor under the caselaw (Causby).

The problem with all this is, that the other person already has his images. Since he has not been tresspassing, it is a pure civil case which would force you to invest in a lawyer and a lawsuit to get the pictures deleted. But even then, the opponent already has (or thinks to have) the information he wanted, you might be able to errase the pictures, you will not be able to legally erase the information from his head.

Bringing it to the point: Though I think the legallity might be questionable, I am afraid there will not be much you effectivly can do as long as he does not sell the information.

 

[pmshop]

Although this question has been answered by examples, another footnote, if they can scan for bodies that have been dead for over 2 weeks, then almost anything is possible.
Can't seem to find a reference now but read it a while back.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Hey guys!
My name is Rj, I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is my first post on the forum and im super excited to be on here because I personally just bought a DJI Mavic Pro 2 for my first drone. \
Unfortunately, That's not what brings me here today. My family is selling a rather large plot of land in a place called Calico Basin, In Las Vegas.
We've been going back and forth with a potential buyer and today my mom just received this message.

This came as a huge shocker to us, and it sounds like hes trying to get us to lower the price.
My first question, DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY EVEN EXIST!? I have a buddy who flies for the United States Air Force and hes never even heard of such things.
My second question, Is this even legal? I understand that the airspace above our property does not belong to us. But taking readings/pictures without our knowledge or consent? that just sounds wrong.\

If someone has posted about this topic already, Im sorry. I searched and couldnt find anything similar.

Thank you so much for your time!

First of all, most houses have buried construction materials on the property. Why would you need to remove them?
Just tell them no not cutting the price.

 

[crlmjohnson]

Hey guys!
My name is Rj, I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is my first post on the forum and im super excited to be on here because I personally just bought a DJI Mavic Pro 2 for my first drone. \
Unfortunately, That's not what brings me here today. My family is selling a rather large plot of land in a place called Calico Basin, In Las Vegas.
We've been going back and forth with a potential buyer and today my mom just received this message.

This came as a huge shocker to us, and it sounds like hes trying to get us to lower the price.
My first question, DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY EVEN EXIST!? I have a buddy who flies for the United States Air Force and hes never even heard of such things.
My second question, Is this even legal? I understand that the airspace above our property does not belong to us. But taking readings/pictures without our knowledge or consent? that just sounds wrong.\

If someone has posted about this topic already, Im sorry. I searched and couldnt find anything similar.

Thank you so much for your time!

yes it does.

 

[crlmjohnson]

Hey guys!
My name is Rj, I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is my first post on the forum and im super excited to be on here because I personally just bought a DJI Mavic Pro 2 for my first drone. \
Unfortunately, That's not what brings me here today. My family is selling a rather large plot of land in a place called Calico Basin, In Las Vegas.
We've been going back and forth with a potential buyer and today my mom just received this message.

This came as a huge shocker to us, and it sounds like hes trying to get us to lower the price.
My first question, DOES THIS TECHNOLOGY EVEN EXIST!? I have a buddy who flies for the United States Air Force and hes never even heard of such things.
My second question, Is this even legal? I understand that the airspace above our property does not belong to us. But taking readings/pictures without our knowledge or consent? that just sounds wrong.\

If someone has posted about this topic already, Im sorry. I searched and couldnt find anything similar.

Thank you so much for your time!

I am presently and have been video taping with my drones, a company that is building a shopping mall, warehouse and a gas station on a property that used to be a huge junk yard. Last summer I watched the company recycle the entire property top soil. They used their construction trucks, I call them "earth movers" to dig huge holes on the property, and refill the holes with all of the top soil on the property. and used the dirt from the holes to replace the top soil dirt. My understand the reason was that the top soil was concern to be contaminated because of the old cars that was stored on the property. and being that is going to be a mall with people, that the dirt had to be replace. the same goes for building homes, it is a little more important when it come to building homes. I do not know what the rules are for digging holes and storaging the dirt on the property. but my understanding that this going on all the time. it is the industry standard.

I do have a video posted in linken with the trucks at work. if you would like to see it.

Most of my videos are storage in Linken.
sorry unfortunate you have to have an linken account.

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[crlmjohnson]

I did load up some 3D photo (taken by my Mavic Pro 2) on my review of the site...so far:

I have several videos and photo post on the internet in several places, where I have been traveling around for the past few years.

Contributions by Craig Johnson

Level 7 Local Guide | 14,793 Points

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[Capt KO]

Well that might have been staged what I watched last nite
but from them showing the screen results of the data that
drone had captured it was spot on. Think it was on the Discovery channel. Course it was TV ?

Good old Josh and his drones. Expedition Unknown and crew use a variety of DJI drones, which are the best part of the show. Starting a while back with the P3 now they're using so many it looks like a DJI commercial. Cool new attachments. Love it!

 

[jagraphics]

I an sure there is a difference between photgraphing and a geological survey. Local laws will apply (I am UK based so no help on those)

Also for side interest see LIDAR Lidar - Wikipedia
There are, as noted by others above, multiple things that can be done from a commercial drone these days and what was Governments Only a few years ago is now used by "everyone" for $100.

 

[BigAl07]

I believe this may be what he is talking about:

Services

Data Collection Services for Farms and Agriculture in the United States and Canada . Order Soil Sampling, Imagery Flights, Plant Tissue Sampling, Sensor and Equipment Installation.

deveronuas.com

I'm not a Sensor Expert (very far from it) but that company is merely using an NDVI camera (Near Infrared) to determine plant health/stress etc. They aren't using any type of Ground Penetrating sensors at all.

Here's a link that starts to touch up on NVDI and drones:

NDVI Cameras for Drones

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a measurement of the amount of live vegetation in an area and is commonly used for agricultural assessment. This page will discuss the following topics: What is the difference between NDVI and VARI Plant Health formulas?How does DroneDeploy...

support.dronedeploy.com

 

[JoeBoy]

IMHO this is BS. any property built in the last 50 years has building debris buried next to it. I am also very sceptical that this technology exists at all. Ask for the report.

 

[PHZ]

Simple solution. Don’t lower the price. Sell it to someone else. Tell him/her to buzz off.

 

[BigAl07]

IMHO this is BS. any property built in the last 50 years has building debris buried next to it. I am also very sceptical that this technology exists at all. Ask for the report.

Oh the tech EXISTS but is it practical and affordable might be a whole other ball game.

 

[unionglzr]

The potential buyer should’ve asked permission first. I don’t think it’s illegal. It’s like doing a pest and building inspection prior to putting in an offer. I definitely would ask to see the report and determine if it was really necessary to dig out and remove.
I wonder if he’ll tell you if he found buried treasure instead. ?

problem with that is if a sellar has something to hide the answer will probably be no

I believe this may be what he is talking about:

Services

Data Collection Services for Farms and Agriculture in the United States and Canada . Order Soil Sampling, Imagery Flights, Plant Tissue Sampling, Sensor and Equipment Installation.

deveronuas.com

Is it legal for someone to photograph your property? Yes, there is no expectation of privacy outdoors, and of course the air is property of the FAA not you, so they can fly over you.

Is this buyer feeding you bad info to get you to lower your price? Maybe. But this is why you have a real estate lawyer...

or is sellers not being 100% up front maybe buyer us just protecting himself like seller with lawyer...yes you can ask but you dont always get correct answer so buyer is trying to protect himself..... has seller usedfill in time he owned land and if so did he offer this info..and if yes what type of fill used?

 

[PMerlinF]

Hello All, I am new to the forum, but not to aerial photography, been working with photography for the last 35 years creating all kinds of product.
Historical aerial photography of the site should be able to indicate if fill has been added to this area, and you can calculate the volume of the fill as well. Google Earth Pro would be a good place to start as they have historical imagery on line. Don't know if you dispute the fill comment, but if you do this may help.

 

[wheelman1uk]

In the UK you have no right to prevent anyone photographing or videoing your property from the air unless the vehicle, ie the drone, itself becomes a danger. However, where the law does step in is when repeated attempts are being made and it is argued that this behaviour is disturbing your quality of life. This then becomes a case for the courts to decide. Before it gets to this level you can apply for a temporary restraining order preventing, (temporarily) the person flying the drone from further invasive actions, but again it is for a court to decide.
It is no different from press photographers camping on your doorstep waiting to take your picture the moment your emerge.
If you are a "personality" then you are fair game but if there is no real reason for someone to continually overfly your property a friendly word is the best that can be achieved in the short term.
Entirely different rules apply when no fly zones have been established, ie around military establishments, airfields, sensitive goverment buildings or royal palaces. Suprisingly prisons are not included.
My experience comes from over forty years over seeing military and industrial security.

 

[mooneyguy]

There’s a huge difference between passively photographing property with a camera that captures reflected light versus actively surveying the ground by using radar such as what GPR would have had to have done to penetrate the soil on your property. The same system can penetrate into your house as well as the ground. The Supreme Court has ruled that police cannot use radar to survey peoples homes in property without a search warrant, and I seriously doubt any legitimate company would’ve done such a survey without your permission.

There is also a difference between what the police can do and what private citizens can do. The Constitution generally applies only to the government; limits on private activity are based on laws. The police can’t come in your house and look around because the Constitution says they need a warrant, but your neighbor can’t do that because it would violate trespassing laws. So it’s entirely possible that it’s legal for this company to do that kind of survey even though the police couldn’t.

 

[mooneyguy]

The law in Nevada is "protective" of drone flight in some ways. I think this was, in part, to encourage the commercial side of UAV business development. Basically, a drone can fly over private property so long as they remain above 250 feet, ceiling is 400 feet unless further restricted by FAA etc. Flying below 250' "requires" the permission of the property owner, as otherwise it would be a trespass - but there's a catch. Upon such flight over private property, the owner cannot claim trespass until and unless the property owner notifies the owner/pilot of the drone and advises him in writing that he cannot fly over such property at an altitude below 250'. If the drone operator again flies over the property below 250', it is a chargeable trespass.

Pretty screwed up, isn't it?!

It is screwed up. It’ll be interesting to see how that law does when it’s challenged in court, as there is pretty clearly airspace below 250 feet that the FAA considers navigable and has asserted authority over. I’m guessing Nevada is going to find that that altitude limit has to be much lower in order to be enforceable, once they try to apply it to someone with enough money to take it to federal court.

 

[EricJT]

First of all, most houses have buried construction materials on the property. Why would you need to remove them?
Just tell them no not cutting the price.

Tell me about it....8 years after we purchased our home we had a inground pool installed. You wouldn't have imagined the construction garbage that came out of the excavation site!