In the book of Proverbs 27, the verse reads: "Do not forsake your neighbor or your father's neighbor, and do not enter your brother's house on the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away." Indeed, life experience teaches us that good neighborly relations constitute the added value of our place of residence.
Sometimes, due to proximity, a neighbor's behavior in the area of his home and surroundings can become a serious nuisance, and this is true not only in apartment buildings but also in private homes. In such a situation, the quality of life of the nearby neighbors is significantly affected, and the close neighbor becomes a real problem.
As part of an activity related to contributing to the community, and cases we handle for the Legal Aid Division of the Ministry of Justice (which provides free legal aid to the financially indigent), our office recently treated an 80-year-old man who lives with his wife in a private home.
Our client's yard borders his neighbor's yard, where a needle-bearing tree grows, the leaves of which fall onto the old man's property and cause many hazards. Thus, every winter, the client suffers from a blockage in his gutters, which leads to dampness in his apartment, and he finds himself forced to leave his house on rainy days and clear the leaves, which leads to serious health problems, and last winter - even pneumonia.
Additional damage caused to our client stems from the height of the tree and its location, which obscures the solar panels in his home, so that even on hot summer days our client is forced to use the electric heater, in addition to the extensive dirt created by the leaves in his yard.
Our client, who attends synagogue frequently and is familiar with the book of Proverbs, has contacted his neighbor numerous times in recent years and asked him to remove the tree, and even took care of all the permits required under the Forestry Ordinance for the removal of the tree. Despite repeated requests, his immediate neighbor refused to remove the tree. Therefore, our client was forced to seek legal advice regarding the removal of the tree.
Section 44(a) of the Torts Ordinance (new version) states: "A nuisance to an individual is when a person conducts himself or manages his business or uses the land occupied by him in a manner that substantially interferes with the reasonable use of another person's land, or with the reasonable enjoyment of it, taking into account its location and nature...".
Real estate, as defined by law, also includes trees attached to the land. Therefore, we filed a lawsuit with the court for an injunction to remove the tree for the tort of nuisance to an individual, in view of the extensive damage caused to our client. Fortunately, the filing of the lawsuit led to a compromise, in which the nearest neighbor undertook to remove the tree, and to allow our client to live a comfortable life with good neighborly relations for the rest of his life, without having to conduct a long and tedious legal process.
It turns out that sometimes there is no choice and the path to compromise goes through the court, as does the path to good neighborly relations.
It is also possible that the psychological aspect of the work of lawyers, as mediators and mediators between the parties, is what often leads to the amicable ending of conflicts and disputes.
The writer, Mr. Shlomo Efrati, is an intern at the law firm Wolfson Weinstein & Co.'.
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