Updated: September 8, 2026
The permission nobody thinks to ask for
Crews planning a Miami shoot usually think about city film permits, and rightly so. What catches people out is the layer underneath: the condominium association, the building management company, the homeowners association, the property manager for a plaza. These bodies control access to a very large share of the places worth filming in South Florida, and their permission has nothing to do with a city permit.
Turning up with a camera at a waterfront condo, a gated community or a commercial lobby without having cleared it in advance is the fastest way to lose a shoot day. Security will stop the setup, and no amount of paperwork from the city will change that, because the property is private.
Who actually controls access
The first job is identifying the right authority, which is rarely the person who invited you.
- Condominium associations. Governed by a board, usually with a property manager handling day-to-day matters. Common areas belong to the association, not to the individual owner.
- Homeowners associations. Control the streets, gatehouses and common areas of gated communities. Filming inside a private house may be fine while filming on the street outside is not.
- Building management. For commercial towers and office buildings, an operations or property manager controls lobby, garage, roof and loading dock access.
- Landlords and tenants. A business tenant can usually authorise filming inside their leased space but not in the shared corridor or the lobby.
- Venue operators. Hotels, restaurants and event spaces have their own policies and often their own fee schedules.
The practical rule is that permission has to come from whoever controls the specific square metre the camera stands on. A client who says it is fine, it is our building may control their own floor and nothing else.
What these bodies usually ask for
| Requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Written request in advance | often two to four weeks, sometimes a board meeting |
| Certificate of insurance | naming the association as additional insured |
| Crew list and vehicle details | names, plates, arrival and departure times |
| Restricted hours | filming permitted only outside peak resident or business hours |
| Security escort | sometimes billed to you at an hourly rate |
| Access fee or deposit | refundable against damage, or a flat location fee |
| Resident notice | a notice posted in advance so nobody is surprised |
| Restrictions on equipment | limits on lighting, cables in corridors, drone use |
The certificate of insurance is the item that most often causes delay, because it has to be issued with specific wording and specific limits, and the association will reject one that does not match their requirements. Ask for their exact requirements in writing early and pass them straight to your insurer.
Timelines are longer than you expect
A commercial building manager can often approve a request within a few days. An association board may only meet monthly, and if approval requires a board decision, your shoot date depends on their calendar rather than yours.
Start this process as soon as a location is being seriously considered, not after it is confirmed. If the answer is going to be no, or yes with conditions that make it unworkable, you want to know while there is still time to find an alternative. The scouting stage is the right moment, and how to approach it is covered in the wider planning discussed on our blog.
Questions to ask in the first email
- Who has authority to approve filming on the property, and what is the process?
- How much notice is required, and is a board decision involved?
- What insurance certificate wording and limits are required?
- Are there restricted hours or blackout periods?
- Is there a fee, a deposit, or a required security escort?
- Where can vehicles park and where is the load-in point?
- Are residents or tenants notified, and by whom?
- Are there restrictions on lighting, cabling, generators or drones?
- What happens if the shoot runs over the agreed window?
Asking all of this at once looks thorough rather than difficult, and it usually gets a faster reply than a vague enquiry about whether filming is allowed.
Filming people who did not agree to be there
Private residential properties carry a second issue beyond access: the people who live there. Residents walking through a lobby have not consented to appear in a video, and their appearance can create problems later even where the association approved the shoot.
Practical measures work well. Film common areas at quiet times. Post a notice at the entrance. Frame to exclude passers-by where possible. And where someone does appear identifiably, either obtain a release or plan to exclude the shot. The paperwork side is covered in our guide to release forms, and it applies to background appearances as much as to featured talent.
Where minors are present, be considerably more careful. Pool areas, playgrounds and communal gardens in residential buildings are places where filming without explicit arrangement is likely to cause complaints, whatever permission you hold.
Drones bring an additional layer
Aerial work over private property adds requirements on top of everything above. Association approval for a ground crew does not automatically extend to flying, and buildings frequently have their own rules, quite apart from the aviation regulations that govern the airspace itself.
Treat drone permission as a separate request, made explicitly, and confirm both the property side and the regulatory side before the day. Miami also has areas where airspace restrictions are significant, which affects what is possible regardless of who says yes on the ground.
When the client is the owner
Even when your client owns the building, ask the question. Ownership of a commercial property does not always mean unrestricted filming rights, because tenants have quiet enjoyment of their leased space and shared areas may be governed by a management agreement.
The conversation is quick and it protects everyone. Ask who the property manager is, confirm the plan with them, and get the confirmation in writing. A single email saved in the project folder settles any question that arises later.
Being a good guest pays for itself
Property managers grant access based partly on policy and largely on how the last crew behaved. That means the way you work on site affects not only this shoot but every future request, including requests from other productions.
The practical version is unglamorous. Arrive when you said you would and leave when you said you would. Protect floors and lift interiors with proper covering rather than a towel. Run cable along walls with proper matting where it crosses a walkway. Keep the loading dock clear rather than treating it as staging space. Take every piece of rubbish with you, including tape residue and gaffer tape ends, which are the two things maintenance staff complain about most.
Talk to the security team as colleagues rather than as an obstacle. They know where the power is, which lift is fastest, when the cleaners come through and where a crew can put twenty cases without blocking anything. Ten minutes of goodwill at the start of the day saves more time than most equipment decisions.
Finally, send a short thank-you afterwards to the manager who approved it. It costs nothing and it makes the next request noticeably easier, which matters in a city where the same buildings come up again and again.
What to have with you on the day
Print or have accessible on a phone: the written approval, the certificate of insurance, the crew list you submitted, the agreed hours and the name and number of the person who approved it. Security staff on shift are frequently not the people who granted permission, and a shift change midway through a shoot has stopped more setups than any regulation.
Brief the crew on the restrictions too. If cabling in corridors is prohibited or the loading dock closes at a fixed time, everyone needs to know rather than just the producer.
If permission is refused
It happens, and often for reasons that have nothing to do with your production. Some buildings have a blanket policy. Some had a bad experience previously. Some boards simply do not want the discussion.
The useful responses are to ask whether a smaller footprint would change the answer, to ask whether a different time would, and to have an alternative location identified before you need it. A shoot plan that depends entirely on one private property with no fallback is carrying a risk that is easy to remove.
How we handle property access
We start the access conversation at the scouting stage rather than after a location is locked, because the answer sometimes changes the plan. We ask for insurance requirements in writing early, we submit crew and vehicle details in the format the property wants, and we carry the approvals on the day in a form that satisfies a security guard who was not part of the arrangement.
Where a location looks likely to be difficult, we will say so and propose alternatives rather than optimistically assuming it will work out. More planning guides are on our blog, there is background on how we work on the about page, and you can reach us through the contact page.
The short version
City permits and private property permission are separate things, and in Miami the private layer controls most of the good locations. Identify who actually controls the specific space, ask early because boards meet monthly, and expect requests for insurance certificates with specific wording, crew and vehicle lists, restricted hours and possibly a fee or escort. Handle resident appearances with notices, quiet timing and releases. Treat drone permission as a separate request. Carry the written approval on the day for the benefit of security staff who were not involved. And always have an alternative location identified before you need one.