Skinny-dipping neighbours help expose backyard privacy issues
Q: I can easily see my neighbour’s backyard through the window in my kitchen. This year, they decided to set up a large inflatable pool, which our landlord said was fine, and was not an issue for me until this past weekend. My neighbours were skinny dipping. I’m not a prude, but no one should have to see what I saw while making Sunday dinner. The only time I want to see a full moon is when I’m looking up in the sky, not whenever my neighbours feel like being in the altogether. Is there any legal action I or my landlord can take? A: The Criminal Code provides, “Everyone who, without lawful excuse, is nude and exposed to public view while on private property, whether or not the property is his own, is guilty of an offence.” A case decided in Saskatchewan establishes that the section is not meant to criminalize the act of swimming nude just because the person swimming has misjudged the privacy of the beach. That suggests that one key issue is how private the backyard is.
If you were to call the police they would probably check how easy or difficult it is to see your neighbours’ backyard out of your windows, and how easy it is to see into the neighbours’ backyard from outside the yard.
You may want to speak with your neighbours to let them know that your kitchen faces their pool, and ask if they and their guests can wear swimsuits when using the pool. If you don’t want to have that conversation directly with the neighbours, you could ask your landlord to talk to them. Although a potentially embarrassing conversation, your neighbours may not even realize that they were visible to you. If that isn’t effective and your neighbours are just visible from your unit, then a practical solution might be simply to draw your curtains. Another potential solution is to erect a privacy screen to block your view of their backyard.
Assuming it is easy to see into the backyard from outside the yard, your neighbours should not be doing what they are doing. Suppose the police have a discussion with your neighbours, but the neighbours insist on continuing to swim in the nude. Whether the police would lay a charge could depend on the extent to which you and others are being offended, whether sexual activity is accompanying the skinny dipping, and in particular whether there are children in the adjoining properties or children regularly passing outside the backyard.
Whether or not you involve the police, your landlord can take certain steps so long as both units are in the same residential complex. In a blatant case, the landlord can give your neighbours a notice of termination for illegal act. If the exposure is not as extreme, your landlord might use a notice of termination for substantially interfering with the reasonable enjoyment of other tenants.
The notices of termination are given to get the neighbours to wake up to the fact that they need to change their swimming practices. Just like the police, the Landlord and Tenant Board would consider how exposed the backyard is. The Landlord and Tenant Board would also consider the effect of the nude swimming on you and other residents. The judgment call has to be made on whether your neighbours have the right to enjoy their backyard as they wish, or their desire to skinny dip has to yield so that you, and potentially others, are not adversely affected.