TEAR DOWN THIS FENCE

The resident who lives at San Francique, Penal, has constructed a galvanise fence that is 100 feet long, between her house and her neighbour’s.

However, the fence which is 20 feet tall has virtually blocked the neighbour’s view into their premises.

Claiming that she has been badly affected, the neighbour, 58-year-old Santie Bhimull, has taken the matter to the High Court and wants a Judge to rule that she is entitled to sunlight and air space which her neighbour’s tall fence is blocking.

The case is an unprecedented one in the history of Trinidad and Tobago, for never has any one sued against not being able to enjoy viewing, sunlight and airspace.

In a lawsuit seeking an injunction, Bhimull has filed in the San Fernando High Court an application in which she has outlined her predicament of having to endure each morning for the past three weeks, the sight of the fence alongside her house which separates her boundary from the residence next door.

She has named her neighbours, Devika Bhimull-Bisnath and Davindra Bisnath, as defendants in the lawsuit.

Filed by attorney Stephen Boodram, who is instructing attorney Jeevan Rampersad, Bhimull stated that since the fence was erected, she and her family have been subjected to unbearably hot, closed and stifling conditions.

The woman stated in her lawsuit that the sun projects on the tall sheets of galvanise and, as a result, she and her family are forced to take frequent showers due to the increased heat.

Bhimull is also complaining that the fence prevents air from blowing into her home. This, she said, caused her to faint one day.

She said the fence has caused her to become claustrophobic, especially when she and her family are in their living room and bedrooms.

Bhimull stated that a building inspector from the Town and Country Planning department visited her premises and had warned the neighbour that there is a seven feet height restriction.

She also contends that due to the height of the galvanise, she and her family have been deprived of natural light and air and that, even on sunny days, her house and the surroundings become dark, or dusk-like.

Apart from the lack of sunlight and the heat being generated in her house, Bhimull pleaded that the view from her living room and bedrooms have been fully obscured.

Neither she, nor members of her family, can see anything over the fence.

The woman said that as a result of the darkness which she is subjected to, she had to install security lights.

Bhimull is seeking a court order to force the neighbours to dismantle the galvanise fence.

She is seeking compensation for nuisance.