Our neighbour’s bonfires set off my asthma every year. I’ve told him, but he hasn’t stopped. Can I force him to?
Dean Dunham replies: There is no general law that prohibits garden bonfires, and having an occasional fire is not automatically illegal. However, that freedom is not unlimited.
If your neighbour’s bonfires produce smoke that repeatedly drifts onto your property, you may have grounds for legal action.
Contact the council’s environmental health department.
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, smoke can amount to a statutory nuisance if it affects your health or unreasonably interferes with the use or enjoyment of your home.
A reader who suffers from asthma is struggling with a neighbour who insists on having bonfires in his garden
If the council is satisfied that a statutory nuisance exists, has occurred or is likely to recur, it must serve an abatement notice.
This can require your neighbour to stop or restrict the bonfires. Ignoring such a notice is a criminal offence.
Your asthma is particularly relevant because it helps demonstrate the potential health impact. Keep any medical evidence and make sure the council understands how the smoke affects your breathing.
There is also a separate legal route. Persistent smoke entering your property could amount to a private nuisance. In that situation, you could potentially bring a civil claim and seek an injunction to prevent the problem continuing. However, this can be costly, so treat it as a last resort.
If the bonfires only happen once a year, that does not automatically rule out a complaint, although it will make your chances of success slimmer.
The council will consider factors such as how much smoke is produced, how long it lasts and how seriously it affects you.
Keep a diary of every incident, recording dates, times, duration and the effect on your asthma. Take photographs or videos where possible and obtain medical evidence if appropriate. You have already spoken to your neighbour, so I would put your concerns in writing and make a formal complaint to the council.
My gym is closing for a refurb – what are my rights?
My gym is closing for six weeks while it is refurbished. Members were only given one week’s notice.
We haven’t been offered a refund of fees but can use another gym ten miles away.
That’s inconvenient and it doesn’t offer Pilates or yoga, which is what I use the gym for. We must give a month’s notice to cancel. What are my rights? S.L., Gloucestershire.
Dean Dunham replies: By paying your monthly fee, you’ve entered into a contract under which the gym must provide the services you signed up for. This includes any classes that formed part of the membership you purchased.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires services to be provided with reasonable care and skill. Closing for six weeks is potentially a failure to deliver what you have paid for.
The gym may argue that it is entitled to close temporarily for refurbishment, particularly if its membership terms expressly allow this.
But offering access to another gym ten miles away, which doesn’t even provide the classes you take, does not necessarily resolve the problem.
You have a reasonable argument that you should not be expected to pay your full membership fee for six weeks when the services you signed up for are unavailable.
There is also the question of cancellation. Your gym may have a contractual right to require one month’s notice, but if the closure amounts to a sufficiently serious breach of contract, you may have grounds to terminate your membership without being held to the usual notice period.
Write to the gym and explain that the alternative facility does not provide the services you contracted for and request either a proportionate refund or suspension of your membership fees during the closure.
If you no longer wish to remain a member, explain that you consider the closure and failure to provide an adequate alternative to be a breach of contract and ask to cancel without further charges.
Check the gym’s terms and conditions, particularly those dealing with refurbishment, temporary closures and alternative facilities. If you pay by card, you may be able to request a chargeback through your card provider.
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