An owner wants to install security cameras or a video doorbell. How should our HOA board review the request?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised November 13, 2026

How an HOA board should review a security camera or video doorbell request: Texas 202.023 limits, condo wall rules, audio consent laws and approval wording.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

Approve it fast and keep the review to two questions: where does the camera mount, and what does it point at. In Texas, a property owners' association cannot enforce a covenant that prevents an owner from installing a security camera on the owner's own property, so a denial based on looks will not hold up there. Florida and Colorado have no statute aimed at owner cameras, which leaves the declaration and the guidelines it authorizes in charge. The board's legitimate interests are narrow. Cameras stay off common property unless the board agrees. They point at the owner's lot and the street, not into a neighbor's bedroom window. And nobody drills into a wall the association insures without saying how the hole gets sealed. Rules vary by state and by each community's governing documents. This guide is general education, not legal advice. Talk to the association's attorney before you deny a request or adopt a camera rule.

What state law leaves to the board

Texas. Property Code 202.023(b) says a property owners' association may not adopt or enforce a restrictive covenant that prevents an owner from building or installing security measures, and it names security cameras, motion detectors and perimeter fences. Under 202.023(c)(1), the association may still prohibit a camera installed anywhere other than the owner's private property. That is the only camera carve-out. Subsection (c) lets the association regulate the type of fencing, but it gives no matching power over camera type, color or size. If your guidelines require approval or set a mounting height, ask the attorney whether that rule, as applied, prevents installation. A camera application that sits for six weeks starts to look like one that does. Section 202.023(a) excludes condominiums under Property Code 81.002 or 82.003 and master mixed-use associations under chapter 215. A Texas condo follows its declaration. In a Texas association with more than 40 lots, a denial follows 209.00505(d). Send it by certified mail, hand delivery or electronic delivery, give the basis in reasonable detail with the changes that would allow approval, and tell the owner they may request a board hearing within 30 days. Under 209.00505(e), the board holds it within 30 days of the request, with at least 10 days' notice. Florida. Section 720.3035(1)(a) allows review of location, size, type or appearance only to the extent the declaration or guidelines it authorizes state or reasonably infer that authority, and the committee must apply its standards evenly to every owner. If the declaration says nothing about exterior fixtures, a new camera rule needs an amendment, not a board vote. Colorado. The Common Interest Ownership Act, title 38, article 33.3, has no section on owner security cameras. Review authority comes from the declaration and the design guidelines it authorizes.

Condos and townhomes: find out who owns the wall

On a detached lot, the siding, eaves and porch belong to the owner. In a condominium, and in many townhome communities, the exterior wall, the door frame and the roof are common elements or limited common elements that the association insures and maintains. An owner who screws a hard-wired camera into that wall is altering association property, and the board can set installation terms for it even in Texas, because 202.023 does not reach condos. Read the unit boundary definition in the declaration before you sort a request. Then split cameras into two groups in the guidelines. No application needed: a battery or plug-in doorbell camera that replaces an existing doorbell in the same spot, and a camera mounted inside the unit looking out a window. Application needed: anything hard-wired, anything bracketed to a common wall, roof or railing, and anything mounted on a fence or post the association maintains. Ask for the installer's name and how wall penetrations will be sealed.

Audio is where the legal risk sits

Video of a yard or a street rarely causes legal trouble. Audio does, and doorbell cameras often record it by default. Florida requires everyone's consent. Section 934.03(1)(a) makes it a crime to intentionally intercept an oral communication, and 934.03(2)(d) makes interception lawful when all parties have given prior consent. Under 934.02(2), an oral communication is speech by someone who expects it will not be intercepted, in circumstances that justify that expectation. Two neighbors talking quietly in a shared breezeway can fit that description. Texas needs one party. Penal Code 16.02(b)(1) makes interception an offense, and 16.02(c)(4) gives an affirmative defense when the person intercepting is a party to the conversation or one party consented, unless the purpose is an unlawful act. A camera recording a conversation the owner is not part of does not fit that defense. Colorado also needs one party. Under C.R.S. 18-9-304(1)(a), a person not visibly present who knowingly overhears or records a conversation without the consent of at least one principal party commits eavesdropping, a class 2 misdemeanor under 18-9-304(2). The board does not decide whether a recording broke these laws. Where a camera covers a shared hallway, stairwell or common entry, though, asking the owner to turn audio recording off for that camera is a fair condition, and it keeps the association out of an argument it has no tools to settle.

Review steps and a sample timeline

1. Log the application with the date received and the address. 2. Confirm the mounting surface. Owner's lot or unit, or a common element? Use the declaration and the plat. 3. Ask for one photo of the mounting spot and one screenshot of the live view from the camera app. 4. Look at what the frame covers. The owner's lot, driveway, entry, the sidewalk and the street are fine. A neighbor's window, fenced back yard or pool is not. 5. If the app allows masking part of the image, ask the owner to mask the neighbor's window instead of moving the camera. 6. Decide in writing. Approve with conditions, or deny with the reason and the change that would fix it. A timeline that works for a volunteer committee: Day 0. Application received and logged. Day 2. One committee member checks the mounting surface against the declaration and reviews the photos. Day 5. Committee decides by email or written consent, if your bylaws allow it, or at the next meeting. Day 6. Approval or denial letter goes out. In Texas, a denial follows the 209.00505(d) notice rules. For a doorbell, a week is plenty. In Texas, a long delay invites the argument that the process itself prevents installation.

Approval wording you can copy

Have the attorney check this against your declaration once, then reuse it. 'The architectural committee approves the installation of [number] security camera(s) at [address], as shown in the application dated [date], subject to these conditions: 1. Cameras mount only on the owner's lot or unit as defined in Article [__] of the declaration. No camera, bracket or wire may be attached to common area, a common wall or another owner's property without separate written approval. 2. Cameras are aimed at the owner's lot, driveway and entry and the adjacent sidewalk and street, and not into another home's windows or fenced yard. 3. For any camera whose view includes a shared hallway, breezeway, stairwell or common entry, the owner will turn off audio recording. 4. Any penetration of an exterior wall the association maintains is sealed as described in the application. The owner pays to patch and refinish the wall when the camera is removed. 5. This approval covers placement and installation only. The association does not monitor, store or take responsibility for the owner's recordings.'

When a neighbor complains about a camera

Most camera fights reach the board as a complaint, not an application. Work through it in this order. First, find out what the camera sees. Ask the complainant for a photo showing where it is mounted and which window or yard they think it covers. Second, pull the file. Was the camera approved, and did the approval include aim conditions? Third, if the camera is on the owner's property and aimed at the owner's lot and the street, tell the complainant in writing that it meets the community's rules. Add that disputes about recordings are between neighbors, and that an alleged crime goes to the police. Fourth, if the camera breaks a condition, such as a bracket on a common wall or a lens pointed into a bedroom, handle it like any other violation, with written notice and a chance to cure. In Texas, follow the notice steps in Property Code 209.006 before any fine. Do not ask either owner to show the board footage to settle the argument. The association gains nothing it can enforce, and a board member ends up holding a recording of someone's home.

Mistakes boards make

Running a doorbell through the same 30-day review as a deck. It wastes the committee's time and, in Texas, invites a complaint under 202.023. Enforcing an old 'no exterior devices' covenant against Texas single-family owners. Section 202.023 was added in 2021, and a covenant that predates it still cannot be enforced to prevent a camera. Approving a camera on a common wall with no installation terms. The association inherits the leak when the owner moves and pulls the bracket. Forgetting that the association's own cameras need rules too. For placement, retention and who can view footage on common areas, see our guide on how to set up HOA common area security cameras. If police ask for the association's video, use our guide on how an HOA should respond to a police request for camera footage.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

More on home & property

Or browse all home projects & property rules guides.