Illuminating guide to a complex area of law

The availability of natural light is important to us all. Natural light plays a significant role in regulating human behaviour, including our sleep-wake cycles, mental health and productivity. It is therefore paramount that our right to enjoy natural light is protected.

The first edition established itself as the leading specialist textbook concerning rights of light. The author, Jonathan Karas KC, is widely recognised as the best in the field. This revised edition brings the book up to date.

A right of light is an easement. The book considers: how rights of light are created, restrictive covenants concerning rights of light, how to prevent a prescriptive right of light arising, the nature and extent of a right of light, what can extinguish a right of light, actionable interferences with a right of light and the remedies that can be obtained for the infringement of a right of light, including injunctions and damages.

Importantly, the book clearly sets out in two illustrated appendices, prepared by Point 2 Surveyors, the far from straightforward techniques used by experts to measure and quantify any loss of light.

This updated edition covers section 203 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, which provides – in certain circumstances – for the automatic authorisation of building works which interfere with a right to light.

It also includes the important case of Beaumont Business Centres Ltd v Florala Properties Ltd [2020] EWHC 550. Here the High Court considered, for the first time, the effect of loss of light where a building was badly lit to start with. Fearn v The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4 is also considered; this held that, while there may be no easement of privacy, use of land in an unusual way which unreasonably interferes with privacy by visual intrusion can amount to a nuisance.

The book is written in a concise and clear style, and is divided into easy to navigate chapters with a detailed index. It is therefore an excellent tool for legal research and is an accessible guide to assist practitioners in navigating a complex area of law.  

Jodie Green is an associate at Russell-Cooke LLP