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Can I take my neighbour on for noise-making?
Initially, I had no issues with my neighbour until he started holding what seemed like church services in the house.
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Almost every evening, loud clapping, singing, praying and music from electronic instruments and loudspeakers can be heard from the house, sometimes extending into late hours of the night.
I have complained many times but he insists that he is doing nothing wrong.
I cannot take it anymore as my neighbour has been depriving my family and I of a good night rest. Can I institute legal action against him?
Gabriel Tetteh, Abeka, Accra
Dear Gabriel, Every person in Ghana has the Constitutional right to own property; and closely related to that is the right to quiet enjoyment of one’s property.
A private nuisance is a threat to this right and can be described in law as any unlawful act which interferes with or threatens another person’s use or enjoyment of his land or property or a right over it.
Acts considered as private nuisance are unreasonable and cause substantial distress, discomfort and inconvenience to the sufferer.
Private nuisance may take the form of excessive noise from churches or bars, toxic fumes from a nearby factory, pungent smells etc. Whether an act is unreasonable or not depends on the suitability of the locality for such an act.
It is, therefore, a nuisance to set up a church or anything that is a semblance of a church in a residential area as excessive noise is bound to annoy the residents.
As a general rule, playing music and dancing per se is not an act of disturbing the peace in a neighbourhood. It is the normal incident of living in a community and moderate level of noise such as music, rejoicing over the outcome of a soccer match ought to be tolerated by all who live in a community.
Where the act of music and dancing is excessive and played daily prolonging into ungodly hours when neighbours are supposed to be taking a rest, then there is a cause for concern and an offence of disturbing the peace may have been committed.
Levels of tolerance differ from one community to another and what in one community may not be excessive could be classified otherwise in another.
Also, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prescribed the permissible ambient noise levels suitable for residential areas for both day and night. Anything beyond these levels constitutes a contravention of the EPA’s guidelines.
The EPA, as part of its mandate, may issue notices in the form of directives, procedures or warnings to such bodies or persons as it may determine for controlling the volume, intensity and quality of noise in the environment.
In this case, since you complain that the disturbance is in the form of loud clapping, singing, praying and music from electronic instruments and loudspeakers from the house, sometimes going into late hours of the night, you may initiate an action in court in nuisance for compensation in the form of damages and also an injunction to restrain or prevent the other party from continuing in his acts of a nuisance.
