Thursday 14 August 2008

Judge Lays Down Rules For Toilet Use

A woman who wakes her neighbour by repeatedly flushing the lavatory at night is facing eviction from her home.

Mwynwen Jones, 57, has lived in her council house in Tremadog, Gwynedd, for more than 20 years but angered another resident by banging her bathroom door and pulling the chain at all hours of the night.

The High Court in London heard that Mrs Jones was guilty of nothing more than making run-of-the-mill "household noises".

But Judge John Behrens rejected her legal attempt to overturn Gwynedd County Council's moves to evict her.

"Whilst flushing a toilet may not be a nuisance, plainly it may be so if it is done repeatedly and at anti-social hours," he said.
Is that just when done by loonies, or does that ruling apply to the rest of us too….? Because if so, we’d all better lay off curries in future!

Joking aside, wouldn’t it be quicker and cheaper for Gwynedd Council to simply soundproof the flat properly, rather than waste taxpayer’s money on these expensive court cases? It can’t be normal for simple toilet flushing to be audible in another flat…

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are some sounds that you can mentally filter out, surely?

I never hear toilet flushes from next door, although I can sometimes hear faint voices. If they have a party until 4am then I can hear that too, although it certainly doesn't stop me from falling asleep.

I suspect that the complainant already had a grudge against their neighbour and was staying awake with a notebook in one hand and a glass in the other, ready to press it against the wall so that she could press her ear next to it.

And 'anti-social hours'? What about people who work nights? Are they supposed to pee into plastic bottles (with cotton wool soundproofing at the bottom of course), and then empty the bottles into the toilet bowl after 9am?

Anonymous said...

"I suspect that the complainant already had a grudge against their neighbour and was staying awake with a notebook in one hand and a glass in the other..."

It does seem that way, given there were no other complaints. Perhaps Mrs KJones should counter-complain; there's more than one type of 'anti-social behaviour', after all...