Neighbour Relations

It looks as if we will still be under “restricted movement” orders for a while - even when we finally get down to Alert Level 2 and who knows when that will be. Tensions between neighbours are no doubt at an all-time high, and whether you are working from home or just trying to stay sane until our “new normal” starts kicking in, you are no doubt noticing more than ever all those little irritants from next door that would normally fly below your radar or at least be tolerable. And of course remember it’s a vice-versa situation – your…

“Nuisance usually involves repeated infringement of the Plaintiff's property rights. An objective weighing up of the interests of the various parties, taking into account all the relevant circumstances is required in these matters” (from judgment below) If the dog-next-door’s incessant barking is destroying your quality of life, read on. A recent High Court case in Kranspoort Eienaars Komitee v D J and Another (41310/2015) [2016] ZAGPPHC 887 illustrates our law’s approach to protecting you from noisy neighbours generally. The Chihuahua’s Tale In a rustic township development boasting a wide variety of free-roaming wild animals (giraffe, kudu, warthog and the like), a…