What sanctions and remedies apply to a neighbourhood nuisance?

Making good the loss: damages

The most frequent sanction for abnormal neighbourhood nuisance is an award of damages, intended to make good the loss suffered in full. That loss may be material (damage, loss of value of the property, expenses incurred), but also non-material: interference with the enjoyment of the home, loss of peace and quiet, moral prejudice. The amount is set by the court according to the intensity and the duration of the nuisance as demonstrated.

This compensation rests on the liability as of right of Article 1253 of the French Civil Code: it does not presuppose any fault, only the existence of a nuisance exceeding the normal inconveniences of neighbourhood.

A criminal penalty must be distinguished from civil compensation. Where the nuisance also constitutes an offence, such as night-time disturbance, the fine incurred is paid to the Public Treasury and does not go to the victim: it punishes the perpetrator without making good the loss. To be compensated, the victim must bring a civil action before the judicial court, or join the criminal proceedings as a civil party if a prosecution is brought. The two routes are independent, and an acquittal in criminal proceedings does not prevent the civil court from finding abnormal nuisance, since the latter presupposes no fault.

Stopping the nuisance and restoring the premises

Compensation in money is not always enough: the court can order measures intended to stop the nuisance for the future. Depending on the case, it can impose soundproofing works, the removal or the relocation of the installation causing the nuisance, the cutting back or the uprooting of non-compliant vegetation, the restoration of the premises and, exceptionally for the most serious interferences, the demolition of a structure.

The choice of measure follows a principle of proportionality: the court adopts the solution capable of ending the abnormality without imposing on the neighbour a constraint disproportionate to the nuisance.

The periodic penalty payment to compel the neighbour

To secure performance of the measures ordered, the court can couple them with a periodic penalty payment (astreinte): a sum of money owed by the neighbour who has been ordered to act, for each day, or each period, of delay in performance. Governed by Articles L. 131-1 and following of the French Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures, the periodic penalty payment is independent of damages and is intended to put pressure on a recalcitrant debtor. Any court can order it, even of its own motion (Article L. 131-1).

The periodic penalty payment is provisional unless the court has stated that it is final, and a final penalty payment can only be imposed after a provisional one (Article L. 131-2). The distinction governs its assessment: the amount of a provisional penalty payment is assessed taking into account the neighbour's conduct and the difficulties they encountered in performing, whereas the rate of a final penalty payment can never be modified when it is assessed. In both cases, the penalty payment is cancelled in whole or in part if it is established that the failure to perform is due to an external cause (Article L. 131-4).