Cases - Marlborough (West End) Ltd v Wilks Head and Eve
Record details
- Name
- Marlborough (West End) Ltd v Wilks Head and Eve
- Date
- (1996)
- Citation
- Unreported
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Rights of light
- Summary
-
The judge held that whether or not a document constitutes a consent or agreement for the purpose of section 3 of the Prescription Act is a question of construction. He said that care must be taken to distinguish between:
- provisions designed to protect the servient owner by negativing the implication of a grant of a right to light; and
- provisions designed to authorise the servient owner at a future date to carry out works or build as he pleases unrestricted by any easement of light and notwithstanding any injury to the light of the dominant property.
The first type of provision does not constitute either a consent or an agreement within section 3 and therefore does not prevent acquisition of light by prescription thereafter. The second type may be construed as a consent or agreement permitting the enjoyment of light before any such building is carried out and accordingly, as a result of the exception in section 3, may prevent the acquisition of a right to light under the Act.