What a Nuisance

There is an area of law called “private nuisance”.  Most of the law of private nuisance is when something comes from another’s property and interferes with your use of your property.  There are a few classic examples.

People who live near golf courses are typical complainants about the errant golf balls that find their way into their yards and occasionally break their windows.  Here’s a warning:  if you buy a house near a golf course, you ought to expect that golf balls will fall from the sky.  If that really bothers you, buy another house.  It generally does not sit well with the courts when people move next to a “nuisance” and then start to complain about it and try to force the neighbour to prevent the nuisance from occurring.

Odours are another favourite complaint.  Some guy moves next to a pig farm and then has a problem with the country air.  Once again, if you don’t like the smell of fertilizer in production, buy somewhere else.  Fortunately, farmers have the additional protection of the Farming and Food Production Protection Act, which provides that a farmer is not liable in nuisance for a disturbance resulting from an agricultural operation carried on as a normal farm practice.  I haven’t got enough space to define “normal farm practice”, but suffice it to say that it includes the occasional spreading of manure!

Another source of nuisance cases is when people block someone else’s view.  For example, a fellow lived beside his sister.  She wanted to sell, but the guy did not like the potential buyers.  He parked a tractor trailer in such a way as to block the view from his sister’s house to Shediac Bay.  He thought this might discourage them from buying.  Instead, they got a court order preventing him from blocking the view ever again.

Occasionally, neighbours get more than a little silly.  A lady who lives next to a local golf course was constantly complaining to course management about the porta-potty that the course had installed for its members.  It wasn’t so much the fact that it was there, it was the fact that many men would step out of the potty while still zipping up their pants.  The course then built a permanent washroom (not as a result of her complaints, but as an improvement to the course).  That annoyed her even more.  So much so, that she hired a lawyer to write a letter.  What was her complaint now?  The washroom building obstructed her view of a certain fairway!

Another common source of nuisance cases is when water drains from one person’s property and floods another.  Many people have the mistaken belief that people have to prevent that from happening.  No so!  Natural drainage which may cause flooding to a neighbour is just that:  natural drainage.  However, if you divert water and then cause it to flow onto a neighbour’s property, causing damage, you are at risk.

Fortunately, inthe law of nuisance, common sense usually wins the day.