What happens when there’s no love between neighbours

An ancient adage of the Roman-Dutch law of neighbours is cuius est solum, eius est usque ad caelum et ad infernos. This means that each man is lord and master of the area in which his home stands and that within the borders of his land, his domain stretches infinitely up into the heavens and straight down to hell.

By Inge Papp

This is a nice thought, but anyone who has ever lived in a normal neighbourhood will know that it’s not always possible to live this way and still have peace.  There are many ways for neighbours to encroach on each other’s domains - it could take the form of an actual physical crossing of boundaries such as parking in your neighbour’s parking spot or allowing the branches of your trees to drop leaves into his garden. It could also be done by making a noise, by keeping animals that wander around in other yards, or by creating offensive smells that creep into your neighbour’s home.  Another way to cross the line would for a neighbour to make indecent displays such as walking around their home undressed without closing the curtains. Some people even consider it an offence against neighbourly courtesy to decorate one’s house in an ugly manner, and have taken their own neighbours to court over it.

It’s clear that where people live in close proximity to one another, they cannot simply behave in any way they like. Online forums are brimming with complaints about “neighbours from hell” who create endless problems for the other people in their neighbourhood. Very often, there is more than just an encroachment of space going on, and some people complain about trivial things because they just don’t like their neighbours or object to their way of life. In any event, when one neighbour does something that causes a problem for another, the second neighbour is likely to fight back by contacting the authorities. They might call the police whenever their neighbours are having a loud party, call the body corporate of their complex when a neighbour abuses their parking rights, or call the SPCA when their neighbours go away for the weekend and leave their dogs home alone.

Police members at station level are used to receiving phone calls from people complaining about their neighbours’ actions, and often oblige by visiting the home of the offending party to ask the owner to respect their neighbours. However, the SAPS should not be responsible for this sort of task.  There are many authorities involved in keeping neighbours from causing problems for one another, and the SAPS shouldn’t be abused by people holding grudges against those who live next door - the police have much more important things to worry about.

Whereas renting tenants have to abide by the clauses in their lease contracts, and complex tenants must obey the rules set by the body corporate, the municipality is the most notable of authorities between neighbours. Municipal bylaws regulate aspects such as noise pollution, parking, pets and the dumping of waste, and these are to be enforced by law enforcement officials or the metro police in metropolitan areas.

Loud music and noise
This is probably the most common complaint among neighbours. Each municipality has its own bylaws relating to noise, but the gist is of the matter is generally very simple - if your neighbour’s music or conversations can be heard outside their walls, it is defined as a nuisance, no matter the time of day or day of the week. Cape Town’s municipal laws, for instance, state that no person may emit noise from a private residence into a public place, except for the purposes of public meetings or loudspeaker announcements. So when a neighbour is playing loud music or shouting in their house, and thereby creating a nuisance, the metro police need to enforce the law by asking the person to keep it down. If the person refuses, law enforcement officials are empowered to confiscate their sound equipment.

Noise that results from the construction or renovation of a house is unavoidable, but it needs to take place at a “reasonable hour”. What exactly qualifies as a reasonable hour will differ from place to place, but generally it means that building noise should be kept down late at night, early in the morning and on weekends.

Pets
Barking dogs are a major source of complaints from neighbours.  We all know the familiar sound of a dog that has been left home alone and barks and whines constantly until its owners return.  The municipal bylaw relating to animals in Cape Town is quite specific about this by saying that no person may keep a dog “which barks for more than six minutes in any hour, or more than three minutes in any half hour”.  The municipal bylaws of Johannesburg, on the other hand, outlaw the keeping of a dog which “barks, whimpers or howls to such an extent that it causes a disturbance or nuisance to inhabitants of the neighbourhood”.  This is a much broader definition.

People also complain about dogs that run around in the street without supervision, and that leave droppings in their gardens or around their houses. Johannesburg’s bylaw states that a dog must always be confined to the premises on which it is kept, and must be on a leash when it is in a public place that isn’t designated for free running. Cape Town’s bylaws state that dog owners need to make sure that their dogs are always on a leash when they are not in a designated “free-running” area, and must remove all of the dog’s droppings regularly (this includes droppings in the dog owner’s yard) and dispose of them properly. Dog owners may not allow their dogs to be in any public place if the dog is a bitch in heat or has an infectious disease such as mange or canine flu.

The number of dogs or cats that can be kept at a house is limited, but there are various limits depending on the size of the house and the age of the dogs or cats.  The laws relating to cats are not nearly as stringent as those for dogs, and there don’t appear to be any laws relating to cats that meow or urinate or leave droppings on a neighbour’s property.
All of the above are part of the municipal laws and need to be enforced by the relevant metro police or law enforcement officials. The municipal law also outlaws animal abuse and neglect, which includes keeping an animal without giving it enough water and food, or providing adequate shelter. It also includes beating, harassing, teasing or causing stress to an animal. However, if you suspect that an animal is being abused or neglected, it’s better to call the SPCA or the Animal Anti-Cruelty League. The specialists at these institutions have been trained to recognise signs of animal abuse and neglect, which law enforcement officials may not recognise, and have been legally empowered to act in those circumstances to protect the animal.

Parking
There are few things more frustrating than coming home from a hard day at work and finding an unfamiliar vehicle parked in your parking space.  Those of us who don’t have assigned parking bays or garages at our homes know this feeling all too well.
Unfortunately, homeowners without parking bays or garages don’t have much to rely on with regard to the municipal bylaws. Parking spaces on a public street, which includes the streets in residential areas, cannot be reserved by the people who live there. Some people even paint yellow lines or place traffic cones in the street in front of their own houses, but this is not allowed. It seems that there simply needs to be some sort of agreement between neighbours not to park in front of each other’s houses, and that relies on common courtesy.

The good news is that heavy vehicles (which include trucks, buses and caravans) can’t be parked in a public street in a residential area overnight.  This refers to the hours between 20:00 and 06:00 in most areas.


(Read the rest of the article in SERVAMUS: July 2010.)