Understanding Right to Light Surveys

When setting out on a new scheme, it is essential to consider how your development might affect your neighbour’s enjoyment of natural light. The significant issue here is the ‘right to light’, a legal principle that can affect the design and viability of your building, which is where Blackacre Surveyors’ Right to Light Surveys come in.

What Is a Right to Light?

Fundamentally, the right to light is a legal interest that a property holder has in being able to receive incoming light through specified openings (usually windows) on their property to affect certain areas within it. So if a new development reduces that access to natural light, that property owner may have cause to sue the latest development regarding an encroachment of their rights. The right to light is also often considered to accrue after the light has been used and enjoyed by the landowner for at least 20 years. For the developer, appreciating this reasonably soon after the start of a project can be crucial since the consequences of not doing so can be profound.

Why Choose Right to Light Surveys?

Suppose you’re thinking about developing? In that case, a right to light survey is crucial to ensure your design complies with the minimum legal airspace rights of your neighbours’ existing properties. These surveys measure the likely effect your proposed building would have on the skylight reaching neighbouring properties if it obstructs their light. This, in turn, can warn you about potential costly claims or legal actions.

Take a look at our Development Monitoring that we also offer here at Blackacre

Right-of-light surveys can save developers time and money by uncovering potential problems so you can foresee, budget and head off litigation before it even starts. They can also be handy for redesigning your project to co-exist safely, harmoniously, and in proximity with surrounding property owners.

How We Conduct Right to Light Surveys

Our right-of-light surveys at Blackacre Surveyors are technically complex, requiring specialist software models and detailed assessments of your proposed development and its surroundings. The surveyor will determine how much natural light a newly conceptualised structure may block to ensure developer compliance with legal thresholds that would otherwise connote an infringement.

Your survey will show that your project is safe on 90 percent of the site, and if we can do that, it can facilitate the project moving forward, protecting the schedule and timeline. If, on the other hand, there are areas of concern, we usually work with you to propose mitigation measures that would reduce the potential for the dispute.

What If a Right to Light Is Infringed?

If our survey shows your new building will block a significant amount of skylight, the affected property owner would be suffering from nuisance. This could result in a requirement that you change the design of your building, payment to the property owner, or, at worst, a temporary or permanent stop-work order (known as an injunction).
This reinforces the earlier point that the right to light survey must be one of the first steps in planning your project. Only by identifying these issues early can you work with an architect and planner to modify your scheme at the initial planning stages – before it escalates to costly and time-consuming delays.

Conclusion

Planning new property developments requires detailed legal knowledge to get it right. Getting a right to the light survey is essential if you are building new apartments, flats, houses, or any other development that could come too close to a neighbouring property. Right to light surveyors can help identify any previous litigation and ensure that your development doesn’t infringe upon a neighbour’s legal right. This is a quicker and cheaper way to develop your land and ensure your building program is not delayed. Blackacre Surveyors offers a right to light survey to help make sure your property development runs smoothly so your investment can return more quickly.

Rights of Light matters are not to be confused with Daylight & Sunlight assessments planning stage, these can be seen on our Daylight & Sunlight page

Contact Us

So, do you want to guarantee the success of your development? Call the experts at Blackacre Surveyors today at 0203 476 9561 or email us at info@blackacresurveyors.com.