Tort of interference with enjoyment or use of place of residence
4.—(1) An individual who resides in a place of residence (called in this Part the respondent) must not, by his or her act or omission, directly or indirectly, and whether intentionally, recklessly or negligently, cause unreasonable interference with his or her neighbour’s enjoyment or use of the place of residence that the neighbour resides in.
(2) An act or omission by a respondent which may cause interference with his or her neighbour’s enjoyment or use of the neighbour’s place of residence may include (but is not limited to) any of the following:
(a)
causing excessive noise, smell, smoke, light or vibration;
(b)
littering at or in the vicinity of the neighbour’s place of residence;
(c)
obstructing the neighbour’s place of residence, by placing any thing or object, or by any other manner, at or in the vicinity of the neighbour’s place of residence;
(d)
interfering with the neighbour or the neighbour’s movable property, at or in the vicinity of the neighbour’s place of residence;
(e)
surveillance of the neighbour or of the neighbour’s place of residence, where the surveillance is done at or in the vicinity of that place of residence;
(f)
trespassing on the neighbour’s place of residence;
(g)
allowing an animal owned by or under the care or control of the respondent to trespass on the neighbour’s place of residence, to cause excessive noise or smell, or to defecate or urinate at or in the vicinity of the neighbour’s place of residence.
(3) A neighbour of a respondent may bring civil proceedings in a court against the respondent for the respondent’s wrongful act or omission in subsection (1).
(4) For the purposes of this section, a neighbour of a respondent is an individual who lawfully resides in a place of residence —
(a)
that is in the same building as the respondent’s place of residence; or
(b)
that is within 100 metres of the respondent’s place of residence,
but does not include an individual who occupies the same place of residence as the respondent.
Illustration
X and Y live in the same apartment but in different rooms. X and Y occupy the same place of residence.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (4)(b), that distance is to be measured from any part of the boundary of one place of residence to any part of the boundary of the other place of residence.