Private nuisance

• Private nuisance: Unlawful interference with a person's use or enjoyment of land coming from neighbouring land
• Private nuisance = One party affected
• Public nuisance = Class of people affected
• The claimant (Hunter v Canary Wharf)

  • Interest in the land affected
  • Either an owner or a tenant
• The Defendant (Sedleigh Denfield v O'Callaghan)

  Occupier of land may not themselves be responsible but are:

  • Allowing it to occur
  • Not dealing with it
  • Previous owners - New owner responsible 'Adopting nuisance'
• Natural causes (Leakey v National trust)

  Occupier is aware of but has not dealt. The same principle applies like in sedleigh
• Private nuisance test:

  1. Whether there is an interference (Direct/Indirect)
  2. Whether the use of land is 'unlawful'
• Private nuisance test:

  1. Whether there is an interference (direct/indirect) = Unlawful (unreasonable) interference. Not a crime. Examples = Fumes, smell, noise and fire
• Private nuisance test:

  2. Whether the use of land is 'unlawful' = Locality, duration, sensitivity of the claimant, malice, social benefit, damage and public interests vs human rights
• Locality = (Hirose Electrical UK Ltd) = How many houses are near a nuisance

  Duration = (Crown river cruises) = How long the nuisance goes on for. Shorter ones don't get convicted unless there is damage

  Sensitivity of claimant = (Robinson v Kilbert) = Something they are dealing with that is sensative. Could cause nuisance
• Malice = (Hollywood silver fox farm). Malice has the intention to cause harm

  Social benefit = (Miller v Jackson). Everyone agrees and decision would benefit a lot of people.

  Damage = (St Helen's smelting Co) How much damage is caused

  Public interests vs Human rights = (Hatton v UK). More protection to those who cause the nuisance.
• Defences to private nuisance:

  • Consent
  • Contributory negligence
  • Statutory Authority
  • Prescription
• Prescription (Sturges v Bridgeman) - Period of time

  20 years without previous complaint, prescriptive right to continue that activity and must have been an actionable nuisance for the duration
• Statutory Authority (Allen v Gulf oil reforming)

  Many activities now regulated by statue and most effective defence
• Remedies to private nuisance:

  • Injunctions
  • Damages
  • Abatement
• Injunctions = Prohibitory - Using force to stop them or take something away. Positive - Told them to stop
• Damages = Must be argued by the defendant that this is more appropriate than an injunction
• Abatement = Allows claimant to enter the defendant's property in order to prevent further nuisance