How do we set up security cameras in our HOA's common areas?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 24, 2026

How an HOA board plans common-area security cameras: placement, audio laws in TX, FL and CO, signs, a retention period, who views footage and owner or police requests.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Most boards can put cameras on common area the association owns or controls and pay for them as a common expense, as long as the declaration gives the board that authority and no provision requires an owner vote for a new improvement of that size. The hardware is the easy part. Write the camera policy first, then buy. The policy decides where cameras point, whether they record sound (they should not), how long footage is kept, who may watch it, and what happens when an owner, an insurer or the police asks for a clip. Keep two limits in mind from the start. Cameras never go in restrooms, changing rooms or anywhere people undress, and they never aim into a home or a fenced yard. And cameras record events. Nobody is watching them live, and nothing the board says should suggest otherwise. Rules vary by state and by your governing documents, so treat this guide as education, not legal advice, and have the association's attorney read the policy before it takes effect.

Give every camera a job

Pull the incident list for the last 12 months before you talk to a vendor: packages taken from the mail kiosk, pool gate propped open after hours, furniture dumped by the trash enclosure, a car that clipped the entrance sign and drove off. Each camera should answer one of those questions. 'Show who walks through the pool gate between 10 pm and 6 am' is a job. 'Cover the pool' is not. The difference matters because a wide view of a parking lot will show that something happened, but it rarely shows a face or a plate. Identification takes a camera close to a chokepoint, such as a gate, a doorway or the single entrance lane, aimed where people and cars have to pass. Mark each spot on the plat, note where power and internet come from, and send that map with the scope when you bid the work. Our guide on how to write an HOA request for proposal covers the bidding. Ask each bidder for a price per camera, the monthly fee for any cloud storage, the warranty, and who owns the recordings if the association drops the service.

Where cameras must not look

The criminal laws on hidden recording are written around places where people undress, and a pool house is exactly that kind of place. Texas Penal Code section 21.15(b)(2) makes it an offense to record someone without consent in a place where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bathroom or changing room, with intent to invade their privacy. Florida section 810.145 covers secret recording of a person dressing or undressing in places that include a bathroom, changing room or dressing room. Colorado section 18-7-801 makes it criminal invasion of privacy to photograph a person's intimate parts without consent where they expect privacy, and it counts a live feed or video as a photograph. None of those crimes turn on the board's good intentions, so take the risk off the table. No camera inside a restroom, locker area or changing room, and none aimed at their doors so closely that it sees in when the door opens. Aim exterior cameras at common ground. Where a view catches a front door, a window or a backyard, use the privacy mask setting to black out that part of the image, and check the mask after any camera is bumped or replaced.

Turn the microphones off

Many cameras can record sound, and sound falls under different laws than video. Texas and Colorado are one-party consent states: Texas Penal Code section 16.02(c)(4) permits recording a conversation by a party to it or with one party's prior consent, and Colorado section 18-9-304 makes it eavesdropping for someone not visibly present to record a conversation without the consent of at least one of the principal parties. An association camera is not a party to the chat two neighbors have by the pool, so one-party consent does not help it. Florida is stricter. Section 934.03(2)(d) allows interception only when all parties consent, and section 934.02(2) defines a protected oral communication as one spoken with a justified expectation that it is not being intercepted. California Penal Code section 632 also requires the consent of all parties to record a confidential communication. The simple rule is video only, everywhere. Put 'no audio' in the policy, confirm the setting on each camera at installation, and check it again after firmware updates and service calls.

What the camera policy should say

Keep the policy to one or two pages and adopt it by resolution at an open board meeting. It should list each camera location, state that the system records video only and is not monitored, and set a retention period. The period is a board decision, not a legal standard. Pick one you can actually keep, such as 30 days, and let the system overwrite older footage automatically. Name two officers who may review footage, require that every review be logged with the date, the reason and who looked, and keep the system on an association account with at least two administrators so a departing director cannot walk off with it. Sample wording: 'The association records video, without audio, in the common areas listed in Schedule A. Cameras are not monitored. Recordings are kept for 30 days and then overwritten, unless the board preserves a recording under this policy. Only the president and the treasurer may view recordings, and only to investigate a reported incident, a claim or a request under section 5.' Send owners the policy at least a few weeks before the cameras go live, and post signs at each entrance to a recorded area that say 'Video recording in use. Cameras are not monitored.'

Requests for footage and holding a clip

Requests come from four directions: an owner whose car was hit, the association's insurer after an injury, the police after a break-in, and a lawyer on either side of a dispute. Require requests in writing with the date, time window and location, and remind people that footage past the retention period no longer exists. The designated officer reviews the window and the board decides what leaves the association. One approach that works is to give the police or the insurer the clip directly and tell the owner it has been shared with them, rather than handing video of other residents to a neighbor. A subpoena or warrant goes straight to the association's attorney. Whether an owner can demand footage under a records-inspection statute such as Texas Property Code section 209.005, which was written around books and records, is a question for that attorney before you answer the first request. The rule that matters most is preservation. When someone is hurt, a claim is made or a lawsuit is threatened, export the relevant footage that day, stop it from being overwritten, and log who saved it. Our guide on who is liable if someone is injured in an HOA common area explains why that record matters.

A sample rollout

Month 1: the board reviews the incident list and a camera map, and votes to seek bids. Month 2: three bids come back and the treasurer confirms the budget line, including the annual cloud fee and a reserve line for replacing cameras. Month 3: the board adopts the policy and approves a vendor at an open meeting. A motion can read: 'Moved to approve the proposal from [vendor] dated [date] to install four video-only cameras at the pool gate, mail kiosk and main entrance, at a cost not to exceed $[amount] from the operating budget, and to adopt the Common Area Camera Policy as presented, effective on the date the cameras go live.' Send owners the policy and the go-live date. At installation, walk each view with the vendor, set privacy masks, confirm audio is off, and post the signs. Thirty days after go-live, check that old footage is overwriting on schedule and read the viewing log. After that, review the policy once a year, and move a camera if the incident list says it is watching the wrong place.

Mistakes boards make

Buying cameras before writing the policy, then arguing about retention after the first request. Leaving the microphone on, which is the fastest way to turn a security project into a legal problem in Florida or California. Aiming a camera down a row of backyards because the vendor said the angle was better. Letting one director hold the only login on a personal phone. Posting clips of a resident to the neighborhood social media group, which invites a privacy dispute and makes future footage look like a tool for embarrassing people. Announcing that the pool 'is now secure', which invites the argument that the association took on a duty to protect people. Keeping footage forever because storage is cheap, which only grows the pile of recordings a lawyer can ask for. And ignoring owner cameras entirely. Owners' own doorbells and cameras raise a separate set of rules about approval and aim, covered in our guide on whether an HOA can restrict security cameras.

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 living with an hoa

Or browse all living with an hoa guides.