Just how much do you love animals?
MOST of us love animals, and enjoy seeing ponies, hens, cows… even pigs, running loose in the fields. We especially love them when the old-lady-nextdoor comes in with a dozen fresh eggs, straight from the henhouse on the other side of the wall.
But do you still love it when the pony’s shed is never cleaned, and that for a single pony you get thousands of flies every summer? And when the henhouse not only produces fresh eggs, but healthy rats running across your own garden where your children play? And when that funny little pig suddenly gets 5,000 brothers and sisters, with trucks bringing in newcomers and taking the older and fatter ones to the slaughterhouse early in the morning, the noisy ventilation working day and night to keep the poor things breathing in the dusty air?
There is no limit to the trouble you can encounter from your neighbour. Either you underestimated the inconvenience when you bought the house or the nuisance has tremendously developed since your arrival. Or you bought this house in winter and the flies and rats arrived in summer.
However, now you are the lucky owner of the house, what can you do?
If you believe you are suffering from excessive neighbourhood inconvenience (trouble excessif du voisinage, which could also be translated by ‘excessive pain in the neck’), then you might have a case for your lawyer.
The principle is quite simple: the mere fact of having a neighbour brings some inconvenience: his dog barks, his rooster will sing early in the morning, but such inconvenience will be considered as normal, especially if you live in the country, where such noise must be expected. The inconvenience may not be considered as normal if the same dog barks all day long, locked up in the apartment next door, while his master is away for instance, driving you to a nervous breakdown. Intensity of inconvenience will be measured according to the circumstances: do you live in a city, where a donkey waking you up at 6 every morning is totally unexpected? The case of the single pony with its smells and thousands of flies is a real case, and has been considered as excessive neighbourhood inconvenience, because the smelly shed was built only five metres away from the house. The court ordered the shed to be taken down.
However, even if the inconvenience is unbearable, it could happen that you have a hopeless case: if you buy the house next to the farm that produces 5,000 pigs a year, and this farm has been there for years before your arrival, you will be considered as having bought the house with full knowledge and acceptance of the existing nuisance.
But if you buy a cottage next to an existing farm and this farm alters or extends its activity, causing a new and unbearable nuisance, then you have a chance of convincing a judge to rule a solution to the problem. Still, being cautious beforehand will avoid a lot of trouble. Before buying a house, inspect the surroundings and question the neighbours. Do your own investigation and do not only rely on the information given by the estate agent or the vendor. Take your time and do not buy the home of your life within a weekend, and you will stay away from the ‘excessive pain in the neck’ previously mentioned…