How does Right to Light UK affect you?
Most of us have spent more time at home this year due to lockdown restrictions and with the fantastic weather we will have spent more time relaxing or working on our homes and gardens.
Perhaps more than ever you’ve had time to think and the fact that your neighbour’s trees, hedges or shrubs, with overhanging branches, spilling into your garden has really started to bother you. It may be that your neighbours have had a new extension on their property or allowed a tall hedge to become overgrown and that impacts on the light you receive on your side of the boundary.
With a few more summer months coming up, perhaps it’s time to learn more about your Right to Light.
What is a Right to Light?
A Right to Light is a type of easement to enjoy over land belonging to someone else that benefits other land.
Right to Light is the right to receive uninterrupted light passing through a neighbours land into your property including the garden. If the trees/hedging or building are blocking light you might be able to acquire a Right to Light under Planning Law.
Should a Right to Light be established, there are various remedies to enforce a Right to Light in the UK and these include:-
- Declarations
- Injunctions
- Damages
- Abatement
Declarations, injunctions and damages are available by Court order and can be granted singularly or in any combination.
Contact a specialist Litigation Lawyer
It is always best to discuss such matters through with a specialist lawyer. We have experience on advising on Right to Light issues, including whether Right to Light exists, registering and objecting to registration of light obstruction notes and advising on local authority powers to override a Right to Light.
If you are not sure about where you stand on this issue please contact our Commercial Litigation Team and speak to Asa Cocker on 0161 785 3500 or email on Asa.Cocker@pearsonlegal.co.uk or make an online enquiry.
Subscribe to our newsletterPlease note that the information and opinions contained in this article are not intended to be comprehensive, nor to provide legal advice. No responsibility for its accuracy or correctness is assumed by Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers Ltd or any of its members or employees. Professional legal advice should be obtained before taking, or refraining from taking, any action as a result of this article.
This blog was posted some time ago and its contents may now be out of date. For the latest legal position relating to these issues, get in touch with the author - or make an enquiry now.
