What is a nuisance?
This content applies to England only.
Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland
A nuisance is something that comes from outside and interferes with the normal use of your property. There are several different kinds of nuisance that can affect you – each is discussed below. This includes things like: smoke, dust, pests, fumes, and smells that can make life in your home less pleasant.
Statutory Nuisance
One particular type of nuisance is called a statutory nuisance.
A statutory nuisance is something that is:
- prejudicial to or damaging to health, or a
- nuisance – this includes smoke, fumes, dust, noise, or noxious gases escaping from the property. Traffic noise is not included, neither is noise from day-to-day activities.
Your local council is under a duty to take practical steps to investigate complaints of a statutory nuisance. The most serious nuisance is one that is prejudicial to or damaging to health.
Prejudicial to health
This is something that causes, or could cause injury to health. This can include:
- dampness
- condensation
- pollution
- vermin infestation.
However, something that is likely to cause an accident or physical injury is not included.
Nuisance
To amount to a statutory nuisance, the problem in the property must be either:
- a public nuisance – something that causes discomfort or affects the quality of life of the public generally, or just some people. To show that something is a public nuisance, you need to show the nuisance affects a number of people.
- a private nuisance – something that interferes with the use and enjoyment of an adjoining property.
Environmental Health Officers
The responsibility for stopping a statutory nuisance lies with your local council’s environmental health officers (EHOs). They have the right to enter and inspect a property to see if there is a nuisance.
Your council’s EHOs have the power to order the person responsible for the statutory nuisance to stop it. This is often done informally, but the formal procedure starts when the EHO serves an ‘abatement notice’ on the person responsible – this is a notice requiring them to stop creating a nuisance.
If the person responsible for the nuisance doesn’t do what the abatement notice says, the environmental health department can take them to court, where they risk being fined.
If your landlord is a local council and they appear to be responsible for a statutory nuisance that is affecting you in your home, you will need to get advice as environmental health cannot take their own council to court – this is because they work for the council. Find an EHO through your local council.
Abatement notices
If your local council’s environmental officers think it is necessary, they can issue an abatement notice requiring the person who is creating the nuisance to stop it. If this does not happen, the council may be able to enter the property and prevent the nuisance themselves.
In the case of a statutory nuisance, the council can do the following things:
- serve an informal notice mentioning possible actions that can be taken against the person creating the nuisance
- serve an abatement notice on the person creating the nuisance and setting out the steps necessary to remove the nuisance
- if the person creating the nuisance does not comply with the abatement notice, then the council can prosecute the person who is creating the nuisance – the courts can impose a fine of up to £5000.
If the person responsible still fails to stop the nuisance, then they can be sent to prison. Any person who is served with an abatement notice can appeal to the magistrates court within 21 days.
Urgent procedure
If the problem is urgent, the EHO can serve a notice on the person causing the nuisance, requiring action within nine days and stating that the council intends to take the necessary steps to stop the nuisance if the work is not carried out.
The person causing the nuisance can serve a counter-notice within seven days, stating they intend to carry out the work themselves – but if the works are not started within a reasonable time, or take too long, then the council can carry out the work and recover the costs from them.
Getting compensation
If someone else is responsible for causing the nuisance or allowing the nuisance to continue and you suffer because of it, then it may be possible to sue that person for damages. If you get help from an advisor or solicitor, they may refer to this problem as being ‘common law nuisance’ or a ‘private nuisance’.
