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Environmental law
4.2 Danish law relating to adjoining properties
Danish regulation of the interrelationship between landowners is based on written as well as unwritten rules of law. Despite the term “law relating to adjoining properties”, leading to the obvious interpretation of regulation of the relations between adjoining properties, not only the relations between directly adjoining properties are governed; the rules also govern relations between landowners further away from each other than directly adjoining properties.
The rules of law pertaining to adjoining properties are thus not found in one aggregate act, but are spread over a number of acts and statutory orders. In addition, such acts and statutory orders – such as the Danish Planning Act, the Danish Fences and Hedges Act and the Danish Watercourses Act – are supplemented by case law relating to adjoining properties.
Case law relating to adjoining properties lays down that – in the interest of the surrounding adjoining properties – owners of real estate are subject to certain restrictions in their power to control such real estate. Any burden / inconvenience in considerable excess of what adjoining properties are, considering the nature of the area, to endure may be sanctioned in pursuance of case law pertaining to adjoining properties.
The sanctions that may be imposed range from reduction of the burden / inconvenience and enforcement notices preventing any continuation of the activity to compensation.
The usual scope of case law pertaining to adjoining properties is any burden / inconvenience caused by vibrations, dust, smoke or odours from eg businesses.
