My neighbours put Christmas decorations in their front garden and all over their house every November.
It’s a massive display, including a huge inflatable snowman, bright flashing lights on every surface and a plastic Santa and sleigh complete with reindeer on the roof.
It makes our street look cheap and the lights keep me awake.
Don’t they need planning permission for such a production? Are there laws forcing them to rein in their display?
Name and address supplied.
No ho ho: A reader is being kept awake at night by the bright lights of their neighbour’s tacky Christmas display (stock picture)
Dean Dunham replies: Generally speaking, planning permission is not needed in relation to external Christmas displays at someone’s home, even if it turns into a production that looks like Santa’s Grotto at the North Pole.
The law is therefore surprisingly lenient when it comes to temporary seasonal decorations and displays, which usually will fall under what’s known as ‘temporary permitted development’.
This means planning permission is not required, provided the decorations are up for less than 28 days and are not a permanent structure.
However, that does not give your neighbours carte blanche to disturb the entire street.
Even if planning rules do not help you, nuisance laws might. If the lights are exceptionally bright, flashing directly into your home, or causing you to lose sleep, you can contact your local council’s environmental health team.
Under the Environmental Protection Act, they can investigate ‘statutory nuisance’.
If the council agrees the display is unreasonable, they can issue an abatement notice, forcing your neighbours to tone it down or even remove the display.
Before going down that route, I always advise trying a diplomatic approach, which means speaking to your neighbour.
Explain how the lights are affecting your sleep and ask whether they could switch them off at a set time each night.
Many people simply don’t realise how intrusive their festive enthusiasm can be and will tone it down as soon as you ask.
Neighbour’s huge 4×4 blocks the pavement
I live on a street of Victorian terrace houses, each of which has a small paved area at the front that people use as driveways.
My neighbour has recently bought a huge 4×4 car, which is too big for their drive and the back of it hangs over on to the street.
It takes up so much space that when I’m out with my baby in her pram, I have to walk in the road.
Are there any rules about people keeping their car within their home’s boundaries, and is my neighbour breaking them?
Name and address supplied.
Dean Dunham replies: This is an increasingly common problem as cars grow larger while driveways – especially those at older Victorian terraces – obviously do not.
What you’re describing isn’t just irritating, it could also raise legal and safety concerns. But, as ever, the rules are not as clear-cut as they could be.
The starting point is that there is no automatic law that forces homeowners to keep their entire vehicle within the boundaries of their property.
Many people assume overhanging a foot or two on to the pavement is illegal, but unfortunately it is not, unless it causes an obstruction – which is where your neighbour may well be falling foul of the rules.
Under the Highways Act 1980, it is an offence to obstruct the free passage of the highway. Importantly, ‘highway’ includes pavements, meaning if the obstruction forces pedestrians – especially those with prams, wheelchairs or mobility issues – into the road, it is likely to be classed as a ‘nuisance’ or ‘obstruction’.
The good news here is that local councils take this type of issue seriously because it raises obvious safety risks.
In the first instance, try to deal with this amicably with your neighbour by explaining the problem.
If this does not work, take pictures and video footage of the obstruction, making sure these demonstrate the issue and the danger caused by it.
It is also worth trying to get other pedestrians to join with you to complain.
Then, report the issue to your local council’s highways department. They have the power to issue warnings or fines. The police can also intervene if the vehicle is causing a direct hazard.
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