taking photos of property

[HeavenSent]

Lady is renting a house on Man's property and they share the same driveway.  Lady's house is not visible from the road.  In order to get to Lady's house, you must drive down the driveway and go behind Man's home.

1) Is it legal for us to take pictures of Lady's house and surrounding property?

2) If no, would a hired PI be able to do it?

3) If yes, what boundries should we not cross?

[socrateaser]

>Lady is renting a house on Man's property and they share the
>same driveway.  Lady's house is not visible from the road.  In
>order to get to Lady's house, you must drive down the driveway
>and go behind Man's home.
>
>1) Is it legal for us to take pictures of Lady's house and
>surrounding property?

The entire driveway is shared by landlord and tenant (man and lady), and is private property. In order to lawfully enter onto the land of another, you must have permission of someone in lawful possession of the land. Entry upon the land of another without permission or privilege is trespassing. If you are neither the man nor the lady, and you have no other privilege to enter onto the land, then you will be trespassing if you use the driveway.

If lady's premises is not visible from the public road, then you will have to trespass in order to take the photographs that you apparently require. However, the fact that you must trespass, does not make the photos inadmissible as evidence. It raises an argument that the evidence should be disallowed for privacy reasons, but if the ultimate purpose is to hide a fact from the court, that would otherwise cause an adverse decision for the person hiding that fact, the court could allow the photos into evidence. It really depends on what you're attempting to prove.

I don't have enough info to form a reasonable conclusion.

>
>2) If no, would a hired PI be able to do it?

Same answer as in #1.

>
>3) If yes, what boundries should we not cross?

Tell me what you're trying to prove with these photos, first. Maybe there's a better way.

[HeavenSent]

BF filed for change of custody.  Main point is that BM is alienating 10 yr old SS (and her other 5 children) from DH and from society in general.   Child was secretly removed from school so BM could home-school him.  He is not allowed to play with neighbor children because they are a bad influence because they are not "good Christians".  The only social interactions the child has is at thier small rural church.

It just came to our attention that the house they live in has ply-boards nailed over the outside of every window.  We can only guess that this was done in September to prevent hurricane damage.  But why do they remain 6 months later?  

Would like to have pictures as proof of that fact to provide to the evaluator.

[socrateaser]

>BF filed for change of custody.  Main point is that BM is
>alienating 10 yr old SS (and her other 5 children) from DH and
>from society in general.   Child was secretly removed from
>school so BM could home-school him.  He is not allowed to play
>with neighbor children because they are a bad influence
>because they are not "good Christians".  The only social
>interactions the child has is at thier small rural church.
>
>It just came to our attention that the house they live in has
>ply-boards nailed over the outside of every window.  We can
>only guess that this was done in September to prevent
>hurricane damage.  But why do they remain 6 months later?  
>
>Would like to have pictures as proof of that fact to provide
>to the evaluator.

Don't you ever go to the home to pick up/drop off the child? Well, if you have the child, and there's no specific directive in your court order to stay away from the home, then when you go the home, take your photos.

Or, make up some other excuse to go to the home, like, you took some photos of the child and you were in the neighborhood and you thought you'd show them to her. Take your photos of the house on the way in or out.

You're thinking too hard. If you have a legitimate reason to speak with the other parent or the child, then you can go on the property and while there, snap some shots.

WARNING: Tearing down the other parent to a custody evaluator is a good way to be viewed as a hostile, vindictive and uncooperative parent. You should be making a case to show how you are the better parent, not how the other person is deficient. The evaluator will figure that all out for him/herself.

Take the high road...children need both parents.

[HeavenSent]

I did not want to waste your time with a lot of details, but it seems by doing so I've left out some pertinent facts:

BM filed for PFA last year, it was not granted, but a neutral pick-up / drop-off location was ordered.  The relationship between BM & BF has deteriorated to a level where there is ZERO communication of any type.

We found out about windows when SS was complaining about being stuck inside all the time at BM's house, and commented that he can't even look out the windows anymore.

Our thought was to have a friend of ours who is unknown to BM go there for the pictures to save a few bucks on a PI.

Thank you for your input.

[jilly]

Seems to me that having plywood over windows of a house would create a dangerous condition for the occupants should a fire break out.  Maybe you can call the local fire department to report a dangerous condition and have them go out to inspect the house. Then get a copy of their report or investigation.

Remember: There's always more than one way to skin a cat! :D