Nuisance is where neighbours fall out and land gets damaged — and clients want to know two things: can this be stopped, and what can I get? As a solicitor you need to pin down whether your client can even bring the claim, what a court will award, and whether the other side has a genuine defence or just a tempting-sounding excuse. Getting the difference right shapes the advice you give and the outcome your client can expect.
This lesson works through the topic in six steps:
- Remedies and Standing in Private Nuisance — who can sue, and the injunctions and damages a successful claimant can win.
- Abatement (Self-Help) — the do-it-yourself remedy, and when notice is required before acting.
- Defences in Private Nuisance — prescription, statutory authority and act of a stranger, and who must prove them.
- Matters That Are Not Defences — why planning permission, coming to the nuisance and reasonable care usually won't save a defendant.
- Sensitivity, Malice and Public Nuisance — abnormally sensitive use, the effect of spite, and the special damage gateway.
- Strict Liability for Escape of Dangerous Things — liability without fault, foreseeability of damage, recoverable losses and the complete defences.