Neighbor is constantly complaining to our governor that renovations to my condo are too noisy. Condo mgmt. has told him and our building's governor repeatedly that we can make noise during renovation, as it was approved and permitted, and we are following renovation guidelines . Common floor / ceiling is 8 inches of solid concrete. Neighbor made recording by holding a device next to the ceiling in his unit, possibly by a temporary opening in the bathroom floor during the renovation . Neighbor also played the recording for a governor of our building, which is how we found out about the recording.
We attempted to file charges at the Pinellas County Sherriff's office and the deputy on duty told us that common walls in a condo do not provide a "reasonable expectation of privacy...". I have searched the web extensively and have not found anything that states a condo common wall is akin to being in a public space.
Having represented thousand of police officer all over the state as a former FOP and PBA lawyer, and land have the greatest respect and love for of them (well most), the very LAST person i would ask about "the law" is a deputy (unless of course he or she is also a LAWYER). The police "enforce" the law; in most cases they do NOT have the skill set to "construe" the law. And while they are certainly given limited discretion to make that call on the fly (as they must), you should by no means consider them last word on the law.
I suggest you take your complaint to the state attorneys office, and if you consider this an invasion of privacy, you might want to retain a good local litigation lawyer. To put the fear of 'the law" in the upstair neighbors.
On the other hand, one must learn to pick their battles, and perhaps the construction and noise is almost over with, and you can go back to just being neighbors.
It's your call.
Hope this helps.
gsg
I'm not sure that recording construction noise is illegal; who is there to get consent from? If the Board is not enforcing anything what difference does it make anyway? I've been subject to an illegal recording made by Big Brothers/Big Sisters a few years ago, and spent $100k defending myself against incompetent reckless cops at the Clearwater Police Department and overzealous prosecutors. Don't ever volunteer for them. Set it aside.
Move on....
I agree with my colleagues. Take the complaint to the state attorney. I sortog doubt that they will do anything but it is worth a shot.
I do not think that you have a civil suit in this case.
The biggest problem as pointed out is WHAT was being recorded. If mere construction noise as proof of how loud it is, then what privacy right was breached? You have no right to privacy stemming from the construction noise leeching through the walls. IF it included your conversations then maybe. But as also states the State is unlikely to spend its budget chasing something so trivial. And absent spending thousands of dollars to get a meaningless court order "bad neighbor," it wont do much for you other than lighten your pockets. You also have to live near this person for the foreseeable future and dont want to bring on a sound war.
