Property disputes - what's the damage? -  2 March 2007

In deciding, it’s vital to know how seriously the court would take your complaint. In cases when a neighbouring property is being extended and encroaches on your land or you risk losing daylight, the court can grant an injunction to stop it happening or to award compensation.

The court will decide whether it’s better to make a payment of damages rather than an injunction. For example, if you’ve watched your neighbour or a developer encroach onto your land over time, without complaining, the court might think it unfair to order them to demolish the building.

In such cases, they may make a damages award based upon the loss of value to your property, or will try to establish what might have been agreed as a fair payment if the neighbour/developer had asked you for permission first.

This ‘payment’ price is often calculated according to either the profit or amount of saving made by neighbour’s/developer’s actions and how much they might have been willing to share with you at the outset.

A recent Court of Appeal case was one of the rare examples where a homeowner successfully got the court to restrict a neighbouring development of flats, which threatened to substantially diminish the daylight in his living room.

At first, the High Court decided that the developer should just pay the neighbour for the loss of value to the property. However, the Court of Appeal overturned this decision, saying that it would be wrong to simply take away the claimant’s light and the developer was ordered to reduce the size of the flats.

Deciding whether it’s worth pursuing a property claim and whether to claim for damages or an injunction requires expert legal advice. Like with any dispute, it’s important to take advice from a solicitor early on, before discussions get heated or the chance to act is lost.