Q “ i live in a quiet and serene neighbourhood in karen. My next door neighbour often has music festivals in his house once a month for three days. The festival involves live performances of music from various bands and a lot of revelling. When the festivals happen we are unable to sleep as it is very noisy. Do i have any recourse against him?”
You do have a recourse against him that is found in the environmental laws and the tort of nuisance. Article 42 of the Constitution provides that every person has the right to a clean and healthy environment. Section 3 of the Environmental Co-ordination Act gives the same right.
Public complaints on environmental degradation are handled at the public complaints committee. The public complaints committee can investigate complaints on environmental degradation.
The environment laws also establish a noise (Standards & Enforcement Review Committee) which is the body that sets the allowable noise levels. It also measures noise levels. It is an offence to exceed this for a particular area. Read more…
