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EPA 1990 gives LAs power to deal with statutory nuisances. Under s79(1)(g), noise from premises can be a statutory nuisance if it is either prejudicial to health, or a nuisance. If that is the case, then s80 requires the LA to serve an abatement notice.
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What can be done about anti-social neighbours? The answer may well lie in the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
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The starting point is to say that the normal remedy in respect of nuisance from land will be an injunction (not damages). Courts take the view that it is not for them to legalise wrongful acts, by merely allowing a money sum to be paid by a nuisance-causing wrongdoer. The end result is that an injunction will be awarded ‘except under very exceptional circumstances’. In general, the courts would have to regard an injunction as being an ‘oppression’ before they would grant damages.
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What do you think would be the outcome of this case: a homeowner is carrying out substantial renovation works, using a contractor. A temporary safety bannister is erected by the contractors, but is removed for a day to enable them to fit the new bannisters. Other contractors then arrive on site (to work on the alarm system, but they arrive on a day when they are not expected). Eventually the homeowner agrees to let them in and warns them that the staircase is unguarded. What happens next is that one of the alarm contractors falls from the stairs, injuring himself. Is the occupier liable – even though he warned about the lack of stair railings?
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The highway authority is ‘under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along the highway is not endangered by snow and ice’ (s41(1A) HA 1980).
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A landowner who is worried about potential flooding may well think in
terms of strengthening the land’s defences. If so, there are two aspects
to be considered. Firstly, there is the role of the Environment Agency.
Many rivers are subject to local bye-laws requiring the EA to give its
consent before flood prevention works are done within 8m of a main
river. This is a point we explored previously.
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In Marcic [2003] the HL held that a householder could not bring a nuisance
claim against a statutory undertaker, unless he could show there was
negligence. This was in the context of a home that had been repeatedly
flooded because of Thames Water’s failure to improve the drainage and
sewage system. But, Thames Water was a statutory undertaker, carrying
out activities under a statutory framework. Accordingly, the HL took the
view that it would not be possible to bring a nuisance claim against
Thames Water if that would be inconsistent with the statutory scheme.
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L’s should ensure that T keeps the demised premises safe for visitors.
L will owe a duty of care to any visitor, with L having to take reasonable
steps to ensure that T keeps the premises safe. So, if L does not do
that, then L can be liable for T’s failure to make the premises safe.
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The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force in October
2006, but many property owners are only belatedly coming to terms
with their potential liabilities under the new legislation. Under the previous
legislation the fire brigade took a major role in supervising risk,
through the issuing of fire certificates. In practice, once a fire certificate
was issued, the property owner could be confident that the building
would thereafter be regarded as complying with current fire standards
(unless major changes were carried out).
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Sceptics may point out that the UK housing market is showing many of
the signs of over-heating that characterised the property collapse of the
late 1980s, such as sub-sales, direct deposits, and unreported
reductions in price. If the end result is a decline in property prices then
we will presumably see another round of litigation by unhappy lenders
against supposedly negligent solicitors and valuers.
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Allowing a tree to encroach on a neighbour’s land can constitute a
nuisance (whether the encroachment is by the branches or by the roots).
Damages will generally be the reasonable costs of remedial work (in
practice, stabilising the foundations of the property, to get the building
back to the state of repair that it was before the damage occurred).
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In a tree roots claim you can include a claim for damages for distress and
inconvenience (ie on top of the cost of rebuilding, repairing etc). In general
terms, these extra damages cover ‘physical inconvenience and discomfort’
(Watts [1991]). But, how much should be awarded?
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The law on liability for tree root damage was set out by the HL in Delaware
Mansions [2001]. That case involved substantial underpinning work for a
block of flats, with the damage being caused by a plane tree which had been
planted at about the same time as the block of flats had been built.
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 Immobilising a vehicle on private or public land without a
licence to do so is now unlawful. Gary Pickard gears up for the
new regime under the Private Security Act 2001.
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