Neighbours’ £4,000 2-year fight ... over a gurgling garden pond
ENCIRCLED by trees and providing a haven for wildlife, the pond should have been a source of tranquillity – rather than the cause of a bitter legal battle between neighbours. Sarah Smith and her husband Simon complained that the sound of running water from the filtration system in their neighbour’s pond caused an ‘intolerable nuisance’ that stopped them enjoying their own garden.
But pond owner Soroush Ebrahimi was backed by his local council, which said the feature, set 80ft from the boundary fence, caused just 50dB of noise – equivalent to the sound made by a fridge.
The kidney-shaped pond, which has been recorded in property deeds since 1894, was restored in September 2013.
A filter system, which was installed to stop the build-up of algae, pumps the water back into the pond through a pipe. The Smiths are now £4,000 out of pocket after they dragged their neighbour to court to try to limit the hours it was in use.
The private case was thrown out within three hours after the complaining couple, who represented themselves, were branded ‘oversensitive’ and ordered to pay court costs and their neighbour’s legal fees.
Speaking afterwards from his £800,000 house in Little Baddow, Essex, Mr Smith, 49, said: ‘I didn’t want it to go to court. It’s a joke. So far this two-inch pipe has
‘It’s a persistent nuisance’
cost me four grand in legal costs. It’s not even a water feature – it’s just an ugly bit of pipe.
‘If we want to sit in our garden on a beautiful, quiet day, we want to listen to the birds but we can’t.
‘We lost in court because of the lawyer. It’s as simple as that. The lawyer turned this into a case based on the loudness of the pipe. We never once said it was loud. We said it was a persistent nuisance.’
Mr Ebrahimi, 67, who works as an exporter, was out of the country on business yesterday.
But his wife, retired headteacher Celia, 65, said: ‘They asked us to have the pump off during the day and on in the night – which we did, between 12pm and 9pm the whole summer.
‘They said it disturbed them when they were in the garden so, as agreed, we kept it off when they asked. Over the winter we kept it turned off, and in February we turned it back on, thinking they wouldn’t be sat in the garden anyway. But they went straight to the council.’
Mrs Ebrahimi said the couples used to be friends, adding it was ‘sad how things turn out like this’.
The Ebrahimis moved into their £1.3million house in 2011, a few months before the Smiths, who run a cleaning business, bought next door. Complaints about the noise began the following year.
An environmental protection officer from Chelmsford City Council visited the pond in May 2014 to measure the sound levels but said that it did not amount to a ‘statutory nuisance’.
In Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the Smiths asked for an order to be imposed under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Mrs Smith, 47, said: ‘The noise is intolerable and the feature is left on 24 hours a day, even when he goes on holiday.
‘Our request is simple and entirely reasonable. We would even be happy for the feature to be boxed in so the noise is directed away from our patio.’
She added: ‘It’s not specifically the noise levels that matter but how the noise affects the enjoyment of one’s own property that determines whether a nuisance exists. The noise never goes away and destroys any pleasure we previously enjoyed from our garden.
‘My son cannot leave his window open in the summer and we’ve even offered to fix the problem ourselves.’
But Nick Ham, defending, said that the filtration system was necessary to stop foul-smelling algae growing in the pond, which itself would be deemed a statutory nuisance.
He added: ‘The Smiths are simply oversensitive to this issue.’
The magistrates agreed and dismissed the claim, saying it was ‘unnecessary’.
Mr and Mrs Smith now have 28 days to pay the costs in full.