Law Commission Pulish Recommendations

The Law Commission has now published their recommendations following a review of the laws relating to rights of light. The key recommendations are as follows:

• 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 the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal to discharge or modify obsolete or unused rights to light.

The Law Commission’s full report can be found here. Read more

The recommendations are aimed at updating the law in order to maintain an appropriate balance between developing in the public interest and the protection of amenity to homes and workplaces. However, it remains to be seen if and when the recommendations will be implemented.