Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Colorado

Re: photographing personal property

It can be done, but you *also* might be entitled to compensation, --particularly if the advertisement makes an untrue statement that caused you harm. Consult local counsel.

Re: photographing personal property

Find the painter who actually did paint your house, and that person will have a tort claim against the poseur painter, on at least two theories.

First is an intentional interference with the real painter's economic opportunity. That means the real painter might have used your home in his own ad, and has been deprived of his exclusive right to toot his own horn. (That's not a legal description, by the way.)

Second is that the real painter would have an action in unfair competition, both under theories of passing off (meaning the bad painter passed off the work of the good painter as his own), and false advertising.

You yourself may have a claim in false advertising, as well as interference with your right of publicity, because the wannabe painter has appropriated the identity of your house for commercial purposes, robbing you of your bragging rights if you painted the house yourself.

Then, there is just plain old fraud.

For you, though, the best approach may not be a lawsuit, at least not the kind of lawsuit that you want to see end up in a trial. It would be difficult for you to prove money damages, because presumably the painter tried to portray the house in its best light.

A better solution may be to let the painter know he done wrong (he knows it, but he doesn't know you know it), and give him an opportunity to do right before you or the real painter file suit on grounds such as I've just described (which you can describe to him).

What that might look like is this: he paints your house, for free, then photographs it again for legitimate publicity use.

But put it in a contract, requiring the subsequent publicity use of your newly painted house in a flattering light, to encourage the painter to do his very best work.

Good luck.