'Can I stop film tourists taking photos of my house?'
From Bridgerton and Rivals to the Harry Potter franchise and Gavin & Stacey, there are lots of historic and iconic filming locations to seek out if you're a film or TV fan. In some cases, these popular filming locations are actually real homes.
In October, one street in particular – Chalcot Crescent in Primrose Hill – came into the spotlight after tourists flocked to the street, not because of its Regency-style, pastel-coloured terrace houses (although that is often enough to attract attention anyway) but because the street was used as a film set for the latest Paddington in Peru movie, with one property being used as the fictional home of the Brown family. Then a further row broke out between residents of the picturesque street and Airbnb, who ran a competition for three families to stay in a house on the famous street to mark the release of Paddington in Peru.
'I've seen people taking selfies right in front of someone's living room window, and you're thinking, you know, if that was me, I'd be a bit annoyed to have my living room put straight on Instagram,’ said Matt Cooper, a Labour councillor for Primrose Hill, when discussing the matter with BBC News.
But what rights, if any, do homeowners have if they happen to live in a location that film tourists are flocking to?
'Homeowners cannot prevent film tourists or anyone else from attending a public place (such as pavements and streets outside the boundary of their home). Only the police or potentially the Local Authority can take action to limit such rights should they deem it necessary, and in any event would have a negative impact on the residents,' Rachel Gimson, property litigation partner at Lester Aldridge, tells House Beautiful UK.
'A right to privacy can be protected, usually by preventing the disclosure or misuse of private information. The Information Commissioner’s Office has created guidance on the use of CCTV on your home, recording out into the public domain, but has not considered the use of recording devices from the public domain into individual houses. This would likely fall within the realms of harassment if that could be established, but given the individual visitors attend for a short period each, there is not one perpetrator—the issue is the repetitive nature of different visitors attending.'
Rachel concludes that little can be done in this instance: 'The law seeks to protect the people involved—not the building itself—and so if the image did not provide personal information about them, the likelihood is that it is not actionable. If specific images posted online caused a concern, then a complaint can be made to the social media company seeking its removal.'
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