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Right to light is a form of
easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a property ...
in English law that gives a long-standing owner of a building with windows a right to maintain an adequate level of illumination. The right was traditionally known as the doctrine of "ancient lights". It is also possible for a right to light to exist if granted expressly by deed, or granted implicitly, for example under the rule in '' Wheeldon v. Burrows'' (1879). In England, the rights to ancient lights are most usually acquired under the
Prescription Act 1832 The Prescription Act 1832c 71 is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning English land law, and particularly the method for acquiring an easement. It was passed on 1 August 1832. History Common law prescription ...
. In American common law the doctrine died out during the 19th century, and is generally no longer recognized in the United States.
Japanese law The law of Japan refers to legal system in Japan, which is primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with precedents also playing an important role. Japan has a civil law legal system with six legal codes, which were greatly influenced by Ger ...
provides for a comparable concept known as ''nisshōken'' (literally "right to sunshine").


Rights

In effect, the owner of a building with windows that have received natural daylight for 20 years or more is entitled to forbid any construction or other obstruction on adjacent land that would block the light so as to deprive him or her of adequate illumination through those windows. The owner may build more or larger windows but cannot enlarge their new windows before the new period of 20 years has expired. Once a right to light exists, the owner of the right is entitled to "sufficient light according to the ordinary notions of mankind": '' Colls v. Home & Colonial Stores Ltd'' (1904). Courts rely on
expert witnesses An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the ju ...
to define this term. Since the 1920s, experts have used a method proposed by Percy Waldram to assist them with this. Waldram suggested that ordinary people require one
foot-candle A foot-candle (sometimes foot candle; abbreviated fc, lm/ft2, or sometimes ft-c) is a non- SI unit of illuminance or light intensity. The foot-candle is defined as one lumen per square foot. This unit is commonly used in lighting layouts in par ...
of illuminance (approximately ten
lux The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by ...
) for reading and other work involving visual discrimination. This equates to a sky factor (similar to the daylight factor) of 0.2%. Today, Waldram's methods are increasingly subject to criticism and the future of expert evidence in rights to light cases is currently the subject of much debate within the surveying profession. After the Second World War, owners of buildings could gain new rights by registering properties that had been destroyed in
bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...
s and the period was temporarily increased to 27 years. In the centre of London near
Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austr ...
and Covent Garden, particularly in back alleyways, signs saying "Ancient Lights" can be seen marking individual windows. The design and construction of
Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main ...
in the early 1930s was also affected by locals declaring their right to ancient lights. It resulted in a unique asymmetrical sloped design that allowed for sunlight to pass over the building to the residential quarters eastwards, long since demolished and now home to the new Egton Wing. Another factor considered with regards to Ancient Lights refers to the building's surroundings rather than its residents. The convention basically is that if an old building which is marked with 'Ancient Lights' is demolished, then the new building which replaces it can not be of a height higher than that of the original building. Owners with rights can give them up in return for financial payment, or courts may award compensation for lost rights instead of stopping adjacent development. Case law from 2010, ''HKRUK II v Heaney'', relating to a commercial development in the centre of Leeds, greatly changed the perceptions of risk to developers associated with right-to-light, particularly in the context of commercial schemes. This case upheld an injunction against a commercial property development partly because compensation was not an adequate remedy. One consequence of this is that many developers now look to work with local authorities to try to use section 237 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as a way of potentially avoiding injunctions against schemes that have over-riding social or economic advantages to an area. The Law Commission of England and Wales undertook a review of the law and practice of rights to light and reported to Parliament in 2014 with several recommendations and a draft Bill including - a statutory notice procedure which would allow landowners to require their neighbours to tell them within a specified time if they intend to seek an injunction to protect their right to light, or to lose the potential for that remedy to be granted; a statutory test to clarify when courts may order damages to be paid rather than halting development or ordering demolition; an updated version of the procedure that allows landowners to prevent their neighbours from acquiring rights to light by prescription; amendment of the law governing where an unused right to light is treated as abandoned; and a power for a Tribunal to discharge or modify obsolete or unused rights to light. The Commission did not recommend that prescription should be abolished as a means of acquiring rights to light.


United States

Under
United States tort law This article addresses torts in United States law. As such, it covers primarily common law. Moreover, it provides general rules, as individual states all have separate civil codes. There are three general categories of torts: intentional torts, ne ...
, in ''
Fontainebleau Hotel The Fontainebleau Miami Beach (also known as Fontainebleau Hotel) is a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Designed by Morris Lapidus, the luxury hotel opened in 1954. In 2007, the Fontainebleau Hotel was ranked ninety-third in the American Institute ...
Corp. v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc.'' (1959) the
Florida District Courts of Appeal The district courts of appeal (DCAs) are the intermediate appellate courts of the Florida state court system. There are currently five DCAs: *The First District Court of Appeal is headquartered in Tallahassee *The Second District Court of A ...
stated that the "ancient lights" doctrine had been unanimously repudiated in the United States. In 1984, voters in San Francisco passed Proposition K, which prevents construction of any building over 40 feet (12.2 m) that casts a shadow on a public park, unless the Planning Commission decides the shadow is insignificant. Massachusetts has similar laws against the casting of shadows on
Boston Common The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beaco ...
, the Public Garden, and other important public open spaces. In 2016, the Eneref Institute launched the Right To Daylight campaign to promote the idea that daylight is a natural right.


See also

* Daylighting *
Protected view A protected view or protected vista is the legal requirement within urban planning to preserve the view of a specific place or historic building from another location. The effect of a protected view is to limit the height of new buildings within o ...
*
Air rights Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others. This legal ...
*
Spite fence In property law, a spite fence is an overly tall fence or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted between adjacent lots by a property owner (with no legitimate purpose), who is annoyed with or wishes to annoy a neighbor, or who ...
*
Spite house A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes. Because long-term occupation is not the primary purpose of these houses, they frequently sport strange and impractical struc ...


References


Further reading


Andrew Francis, ''Right of light ahead!'', Journal of Building Appraisal, (2008) 4, 5–13

''Right To Daylight''
Eneref Institute campaign * Paul Chynoweth (2004
Progressing the rights to light debate – Part 1: a review of current practice, Structural Survey, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 131–7

''Anstey's Rights of Light''
John Anstey and Lance Harris,
''Rights of Light''
Stephen Bickford-Smith and Andrew Francis,
"Practical Neighbour Law Handbook"
Alistair Redler

*
A neighbours tree is blocking light, what can I do?"
Silver Oak Arboriculture Davis, Howard. "The Future of Ancient Lights," Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, Vol. 6, No. 2, Summer 1989, pp. 132–153. {{Authority control Light Real property law Photometry Energy-saving lighting Surveying Land management English legal terminology