Nuisance — Public & Private

Nuisance is unreasonable interference with a person’s use or enjoyment of land, or with a right common to the public. The law balances a person’s right to enjoy his land against his neighbour’s right to use his.

Private vs Public Nuisance

flowchart TD
    A["NUISANCE"]:::root
    A --> B["PRIVATE nuisance<br/>interference with YOUR land or<br/>its comfortable enjoyment<br/>(noise, smell, smoke, vibration)"]:::leaf
    A --> C["PUBLIC nuisance<br/>interference with a right common<br/>to the public (obstructing a highway)<br/>— primarily a CRIME"]:::pub

    classDef root fill:#FFF8DC,stroke:#333,color:#000;
    classDef leaf fill:#E6F3FF,stroke:#1E3A8A,color:#000;
    classDef pub fill:#FFF7E6,stroke:#8a6d1e,color:#000;
    linkStyle default stroke:#888,stroke-width:1px;

Private Nuisance

Interference with your land or its comfortable enjoyment — noise, smell, smoke, vibration, encroachment. The interference must be substantial and unreasonable; the test balances locality, duration and the defendant’s conduct.

• St. Helen’s Smelting Co. v. Tipping (1865) — fumes from a copper smelting works damaged the plaintiff’s trees. The Court distinguished material injury to property (always actionable) from mere personal discomfort (judged by the locality — “what would be a nuisance in Belgrave Square would not necessarily be so in Bermondsey”).

Public Nuisance

Interference with a right common to the public — obstructing a highway, polluting a public water source. It is primarily a crime; a private person may sue in tort only on proof of special damage over and above that suffered by the general public.

Defences that do NOT work: that the plaintiff “came to the nuisance,” or that the defendant’s activity is useful to the public, is generally no defence to a private nuisance.

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