License-plate-reading cameras and other surveillance technology are creating new questions for real estate professionals as homeowners associations weigh neighborhood security against privacy concerns.
Flock Safety — one of the best-known providers of automated license plate reader technology — has become a focal point of public backlash over surveillance.
But implications for housing extend beyond one company.
Homeowners associations (HOA) are also using conventional security cameras, while emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools can scan neighborhoods for potential covenant violations.
For agents and brokers, the developments raise practical questions about what buyers should know before purchasing a home, what sellers should disclose and how professionals can help buyers and sellers evaluate a community without creating unnecessary liability.
Leigh Brown, a North Carolina and South Carolina Realtor with One Community Real Estate, has been raising those questions with fellow real estate professionals.
In a recent talk with South Carolina’s Aiken Association of Realtors titled, “Is Surveillance Material Fact? Let’s Talk About Flock Cameras,” she addressed disclosure, fair housing and agents’ responsibilities to their clients.
“Flock is a brand name,” Brown told HousingWire. “God love Realtors, but they don’t always do all the research. I’m just trying to be very honest. I’m very against [Flock and similar surveillance tech]. I think they’re a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. But that aside, my concern as a practicing Realtor is that there’s a disclosure issue with these things.”
Mike Schwab — CEO of Association Online — said surveillance systems remain relatively uncommon among the associations he encounters, but expects the technology to become a more standard consideration in real estate due diligence.
“We don’t hear about it that often because the expense of it and a lot of HOAs have enough issues,” he said. “But there are some that have installed it. We see it more in gated communities where they want to track everybody that is coming in and out.”
Schwab added that HOA governing documents often predate these technologies — leaving boards and homeowners without clear guidance about how to address them.
Earlier this month, Flock cameras reportedly installed by a Georgia HOA without residents’ approval were cut down with a saw, one of numerous instances of nationwide public backlash.
Reports show Flock expanding its total reach to more than 6,000 communities, which includes private neighborhoods, HOAs, retail properties and business districts.
A potential disclosure issue
For Brown, the most immediate concern is whether buyers know about surveillance before they enter a community to view a property.
She described working with three buyer clients in one year who had temporary protective orders against their spouses.
“If I take her into this neighborhood and she’s captured by the camera, and her ex has a friend in the police department who has access to her license plate, it’s very easy for him to know where she lives,” said Brown. “So when you start taking that into account, there’s a huge challenge here with the fact that she should know [about that possibility].
“So, if it’s in a disclosure document or in a field in the MLS, I could tell her, ‘All right, this neighborhood has Flock cameras,’ and then she can choose whether she goes in or out of it.”
At least 50 law enforcement officers have been accused or charged with misuse of Flock or related technology — with more than half of such incidents related to romantic partners, according to a recent Washington Post investigation.
In addition to wanting to avoid a former partner, buyers may have other valid personal reasons for avoiding surveillance, even when an association presents it as a security feature, Brown said.
“The HOAs are installing these under the guise of license plate readers, so we can stop porch pirates and protect our neighborhood,” she said. “They’re not disclosing that the cameras are capturing the entire vehicle. It captures all the identifying information — time and date stamp — and then it goes up into a cloud that is managed by a private company, because Flock and Axon are both privately owned companies that can be accessed by anybody.
“So, it’s not like the HOA is the only one accessing the data. It’s the local police department. It’s other states. It’s other police departments.”
What agents should ask
Schwab said HOA documents may not provide a clear answer about whether a community has installed surveillance cameras. When governing documents are silent, he said, the decision to approve a system generally rests with the association’s board.
“That’s the hard part because the HOAs really don’t have any responsibility to disclose it, so the only way to know if it’s even there in the community is to ask,” said Schwab. “Or, you can look through their financials and maybe they have it on a line-item budget, but a lot of times that won’t be the case either. So, it’s about asking the right questions to the HOA.”
Brown favors a simple yes-or-no question on disclosure forms.
“Does your HOA have surveillance cameras installed? Yes or no?” she said. “That’s pretty much what it boils down to. Because then it wouldn’t matter what brand they are. It wouldn’t matter who’s paying for it and all of that.”
Buyers who want additional details can investigate further, including who owns a system and how its data is handled, Brown added.
For agents, that could mean asking the HOA directly, reviewing available association records and determining whether surveillance information is already included in community documents.
The risk of discovering cameras late
Schwab and Brown stressed that the timing of information matters — although Schwab has not encountered many transactions disrupted by surveillance concerns.
“We haven’t heard about that, but there’s nothing more popular right now than Flock and HOAs in terms of bad press,” Schwab said. “So, I think that’s why [HOA’s use of Flock] is getting a lot of attention. But if it really is a concern from a buyer, I think that’s something they need to try to get information from the HOA about before they go under contract, before they go to closing.”
Brown warned that discovering a system late can leave buyers facing a difficult choice after they have already invested time and emotion in a property.
“Somebody looks at a house, they fall in love, well, then they can’t buy it for something that was undisclosed,” she said. “Now, you have to replace the perfect house, and you might not be able to do so. So, we create an unnecessary problem with failure to disclose. It’s kind of like floodplain. Sure, I can go look it up, but the seller has a duty to disclose so that somebody can can know right off the bat if they will or will not consider that property. I think the same thing should apply to these cameras.”
For brokers, Brown said the challenge is to establish a consistent process that helps agents identify relevant information early while avoiding unsupported legal claims or assumptions about a system’s operation.
“The most important thing for any [real estate professional] when you’re protecting yourself from liabilities, of course, is to abide by the basic tenet of fair housing,” she said. “That means what you do for one, you do for all. So, if you’re going to ask one client if they have concerns about Flock cameras, you better ask all of them that.”
Surveillance beyond license plates
The questions are likely to grow as associations consider technologies beyond automated license plate readers.
Schwab said some HOAs now use cameras mounted on vehicles that drive through communities, recording conditions that AI software can analyze for potential violations.
“It takes a recording of everybody, and if there’s something like a trash can out or if it notices that you’ve changed your paint color and had to have approval, it can automatically detect that,” he said. “They run that system through AI and it notices any changes in the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of technology challenges that the HOAs haven’t thought of, and the HOA documents are definitely behind the times on adapting to new technology.”
However, Schwab said that ease of access to HOA information is far from uniform.
“Your agent should be helping to get you as much [information] as possible,” he said. “But it really varies from HOA to HOA as far as how readily available they make that information. A lot of times they try to hide it behind a paywall, and it makes it really difficult to do that due diligence before you buy into a community.”
For Brown, the opportunity is for real estate professionals to help buyers ask questions that might otherwise go unasked.
“We are relationship builders, but we’re question askers first and foremost,” she said. “That’s how we build our relationships, and then if we answer them with integrity and do a little research, that’s what builds the relationship. We have an opportunity right now to do something the general public’s not doing, which is lead the way.”
As surveillance becomes a more visible part of neighborhood life, agents and brokers may increasingly need to treat it as a standard due diligence topic — one that can affect a buyer’s comfort, trust and market mobility.
