Suing a developer for creating a public nuisance

Image credit: John Winder; licence

In this country, valid objections to development proposals do not include loss of equity in one’s home or the nuisance caused by building works, whereas these are of course prominent in the mind of most objectors.

Depending on the proximity of neighbouring houses, a developer can be said to extract value from those houses and transfer it to his own pocket. As to nuisance, we have always understood that, if he has the requisite planning consents and builds within a reasonable time-frame, a developer will escape any liability to a common law charge of ‘creating a public nuisance’. According to Pearson Legal and everything else we have heard about the subject, it seemed that an action could only be brought if the nuisance were deemed unreasonable.

We were therefore surprised by a Q and A at GHP Legal dated September 2021, which please consult for the full text. In short, the questioner asks whether he or she can sue a developer for nuisance. The answer is: possibly.