Cases - Barnes v Loach
Record details
- Name
- Barnes v Loach
- Date
- (1879)
- Citation
- 4 QBD 494
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Rights of light
- Summary
-
There was a dispute, on a reference from an arbitrator, as to whether 2 types of alteration to a row of cottages on the plaintiff's land affected his rights to light over the defendant's land. The first alteration, following resolution of a boundary dispute, was that the walls of a number of cottages, which had projected on to the defendant's land, were moved back onto the plaintiff's land. The windows were the same size and were in the same relative position as the original windows, but they were now set back on to the plaintiff's land. The second alteration was that the occupier of one cottage had built a wall with a new window in it, at a different angle from the original window, outside the original wall. The original window was unaltered.
The court held that the right was not destroyed by the setting back of the wall. A right of light would not be destroyed unless the alteration of the dominant property substantially changed the nature of the property or materially increased the burden on the servient property. The addition of a wall and window outside the original wall and window did not change the nature of the property so substantially as to destroy the right of light.