If a Neighbor Can See You Naked, Do You Have to Cover Up?

Q. My apartment on the top floor of a Brooklyn co-op faces a courtyard. A resident on the opposite side of the courtyard complained to management that I have been spotted naked in my apartment. I’m a male in my 70s and no exhibitionist. The neighbor must see me early in the morning when I go to the kitchen to boil water. (I don’t turn on a light.) The waist-high window has curtains pulled back at the bottom around a plant on the sill, and the courtyard is about 150 feet across. This person must be working pretty hard to catch this view. What does the law say about my right to be naked in my own home?

A. New York State decency laws do apply to some behavior inside a private residence. You could cross a line if you were to, say, intentionally flash your neighbors for an extended period of time, a situation I pondered a few years ago in this column.

But when it comes to walking in the buff in your own home, you’re not breaking New York law — even if your neighbor spots you. “Nudity is, for better or worse, something that pretty much has to be tolerated when you live in a city as densely populated as New York,” said Eric D. Sherman, a real estate lawyer and a partner at the Manhattan law firm Pryor Cashman. Who among us hasn’t walked to the kitchen naked to turn on the kettle, or stepped out of the shower to find the curtains open? And, frankly, why should we feel obligated to stop?

Check your co-op’s governing documents for decency rules, Mr. Sherman said, although “I really would not expect any express prohibition against nudity in your own home.” Could the board cite you for objectionable conduct, a general provision found in most proprietary leases? It could try, but such a move would be unlikely, Mr. Sherman said.

You should not have to cover up in your own kitchen, but you also may not want someone watching you. So, hang a sheer curtain in the window, one that will not reduce light, but will provide you some privacy. This courteous gesture could help put an end to the matter. Your neighbor, with nothing left to see, would have to look elsewhere.