BALLS UP
Your kids are breaking law if they kick their ball over neighbour’s fence, High Court rules after couple sued next door
The couple were said to have 'lost perspective'
KIDS who kick footballs over garden walls are breaking the law, the High Court has ruled, after a couple sued their next-door neighbours.
Mohamed and Marie-Anne Bakhaty have been awarded damages after complaining that footballs from their neighbouring school were landing in their garden.
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Balls being repeatedly kicked over a fence from a school into a neighbouring property's garden were a nuisance, a High Court judge has found.
While the odd stray ball might be "annoying", the judge deemed the "frequent projection" of them onto someone else's land breaches common law.
Mrs Bakhaty told the court in a witness statement that over a period of 11 months, some 170 balls fell into their garden.
However, High Court Judge Philip Glen, sitting in Southampton, refused to grant an injunction stopping the use of the all-weather play area at Westgate All Through School in Winchester, Hampshire.
In his written ruling on Monday, he said: "I recognise that they are extremely fond and proud of what is on any view a beautiful home.
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"I fear, however, that they have become sensitised by the noise from the school in a way which has caused them to become over-invested in their belief that they are victims of a wrong. In short, they have lost perspective."
Judge Glen added that while use of the £36,000 all-weather play area does not give rise to "actionable nuisance", the "frequent projection of balls over the boundary" from the play area was a nuisance.
He ordered Hampshire County Council to pay the Bakhatys £1,000 in damages for a period of time when there was "excess use" of the all-weather play area, and when "significant numbers of balls were crossing the boundary fence".
Judge Glen continued: "I am satisfied that the noise from the school, with or without the all-weather play area, amounts to a substantial, in the sense of not being trivial or transient, interference with the ordinary user by the claimants of St Anns.
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"I am also satisfied that the substantial number of balls crossing the boundary fence prior to the 2022 mitigations falls into the same category."
The all-weather play area is parallel to, and about two metres from the boundary of the Bakhatys's house - St Anns, Links Road in the Fulflood - and the boundary itself is marked by a 1.8m close boarded fence.
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It was built in 2021, and in July 2022 the headteacher of the school wrote to the couple to offer to fence off the area to create a buffer zone, to put up a ball net over the area, and restrict use of the area to up until 4.15pm on a school day.
Although the couple did not respond, the measures were put in place.
Judge Glen said in his judgement: "There can also in my judgement be no objection to the use by the school of the area presently fenced off behind the all-weather play area for structured activities such as natural history lessons.
"Indeed, if a net was erected to prevent balls, and other objects, from crossing the boundary fence, I cannot necessarily see that there could be any real objection to opening this area up altogether."
He also said: "I do not consider that the defendant 'threatens and intends' to continue the nuisance that I have found existed, albeit that they would have liked in other circumstances to have done so."
What is the common law on nuisance behaviour with neighbours?
The High Court has ruled that kids who repeatedly kick footballs over the garden fence and into neighbours gardens are breaking common law.
High Court Judge Philip Glen ruled that while the odd accidental ball kicking would be just "annoying", the "frequent projection" of them onto someone else's land would be in violation of the law.
So, if your kids are found to have been intentionally, and consistently, kicking balls over the fence to frustrate your neighbour, they could be in breach of common law.
This is as a new precedent has been set, with Glen's ruling this week, that the repeated nuisance action would be in breach of the law.
While your kids can't be arrested for kicking the balls over, your neighbours may be able to sue you if they can prove the nuisance was consistent and intentional.
If they can prove these things, you may be likely to lose, due to the new precedent set.
Hampshire County Council was ordered to pay Mohamed and Marie-Anne Bakhaty £1,000 in damages for the period of time when there was "excess use" of an all-weather play area at their neighbouring school, after making a complaint that a large number of balls were falling into their garden and pool.
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