Cases - Phipps v Pears
Record details
- Name
- Phipps v Pears
- Date
- [1965]
- Citation
- 1 QB 76
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Easements - Rights of light
- Summary
-
Two houses adjoined in that their flank walls were up against one another but not bonded together. The defendant demolished his house, exposing the flank wall of the plaintiff's house to the elements. That flank wall had never been rendered, and rain penetrated the wall, froze, and caused cracking. The plaintiff claimed damages from the defendant. His claim was dismissed and this decision was upheld on appeal by Lord Denning, who said held that an easement of protection from the weather was unknown to the law and that everyone is entitled to pull down his house and that if it exposes another house to the weather, that is the problem of the owner of the other house.
The observation to the effect that a person may pull down his or her house and expose a neighbour's to the weather with impunity must now be qualified by reference to the duties that it is now accepted are imposed by the law of tort on a landowner.
Summarising the law, Lord Denning MR said:
'Suppose you have a fine view from your house. You have enjoyed the view for many years. It adds greatly to the value of your house. But if your neighbour chooses to despoil it, by building up and blocking it, you have no redress. There is no such right known to the law as a right to a prospect or view [...] The only way in which you can keep the view from your house is to get your neighbour to make a covenant with you that he will not build so as to block your view.'