fbpx

Overlooking is Not a Private Nuisance – Landmark Court of Appeal Ruling

14th April 2020 By

If you are a property occupier and have noise, dust, noxious smells, vibrations or other forms of nuisance inflicted upon you by a neighbour, the law will provide you with a remedy. However, the Court of Appeal has ruled in a landmark case that that principle does not apply to loss of privacy caused by overlooking.

The case concerned a luxury apartment block which was overlooked by the external viewing gallery of a neighbouring museum. Residents of the flats complained that the gallery enabled thousands of museum visitors to look directly through their windows, seriously impinging on their privacy. In some cases, photographs and video footage of flat dwellers going about their daily lives had been posted online for all to see.

The residents launched proceedings against the museum’s trustees, claiming to be victims of a private law nuisance. They sought an injunction requiring the trustees to prevent members of the public from observing the flats from certain parts of the viewing gallery. Their application was, however, rejected by a judge.

In dismissing their appeal against that outcome, the Court noted that, in the hundreds of years in which the law of private nuisance has come to the aid of those in possession of land who suffer at their neighbours’ hands, there was not a single reported case in which a claim in respect of overlooking had succeeded. The overwhelming weight of judicial authority was that mere overlooking is not capable of founding a private nuisance claim.

The Court acknowledged that being overlooked by thousands of strangers might be viewed as an interference with the amenity value of the flat dwellers’ land. However, the installation of a window or balcony overlooking an adjoining domestic garden was capable of being just as objectively annoying. Given that breadth of circumstances and scale, it was difficult to envisage any clear legal guidance as to where the line should be drawn between what is legal and what is not.

Opposition to planning applications based on overlooking is commonplace and any extension of the law of private nuisance so as to provide a remedy for overlooking raised the prospect of a multiplicity of such claims being pursued when planning objections have been rejected.

Even in the light of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to respect for private and family life, there was no sound reason to extend the law of private nuisance to embrace overlooking. Rather than the Court taking it upon itself to grant such an extension, it was preferable to leave it to Parliament to formulate any further laws that may be perceived as necessary to deal with overlooking.

Source: Concious

Latest News

Tenants Can Purchase Freehold When Landlord Cannot Be Found

11th June, 2024 By

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 gives qualifying leaseholders the right to join together to buy the freehold of their properties – a process known as collective enfranchisement. A recent case demonstrated that this right can be exercised even when the landlord cannot be found. The leaseholders of two flats in a terraced house wished to purchase it from the landlord, but were unable to ascertain his whereabouts and therefore could not serve notice on him under Section 13 of the Act. They therefore applied for an...

Court Refuses to Set Aside Divorce Order Applied for by Mistake

6th June, 2024 By

While the courts have a range of powers to set aside orders, they will only exercise them in limited circumstances. In a somewhat surprising case that has attracted much comment, the High Court declined to set aside a final order of divorce that had been applied for by mistake. A couple separated in January 2023, after more than 21 years of marriage. In October that year, while financial remedy proceedings were still ongoing, the wife's legal representatives inadvertently applied for a final order of divorce in respect of her instead...

Waiting Time for Grants of Probate Falls

3rd June, 2024 By

Following concerns last year about delays in processing probate applications, recent figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show that waiting times for grants of probate are continuing to improve. The average time from submission of a probate application to probate being granted fell to 11.3 weeks in March 2024, a decrease from 13.7 weeks in February and 13.8 weeks in January. This is the lowest figure since March 2023, when the average was 10.8 weeks. The longest waiting time since then was in November, at 15.8 weeks: that month,...

Late Appeal Against Tax Penalties Rejected

31st May, 2024 By

It is incumbent on taxpayers to make sure they fully comply with their obligations to file returns and pay any tax due. The point was illustrated by a recent case in which a taxpayer whose return had not been received by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) failed to persuade the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) that he should be permitted to appeal against the resulting penalties. On the evening of 31 January 2014, the man had completed his 2012/13 Income Tax return on HMRC's website. Shortly afterwards he went to Cyprus, and...