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Right-To-Light

right to light model - before and after planned development 

 The right to light is a legal right which one property may acquire over the land of another. If a building or wall is erected which reduces the light in the obstructed property below sufficient levels, then the right to light is infringed. The owner or tenant of the obstructed property may sue, either for the removal of the obstructing obstacle or for damages. This can be costly if a whole building has to be pulled down, and so the question of rights to light should be considered at the design stage.

Flow Analysis are frequently asked to assess right to light issues by analysing the daylight availability before and after planned developments. The results are presented in a widely accepted format. Further the process has been largely automated, so that the cost of performing the analysis is relatively low.

The case presented here concerns the right to light of a three storey dwelling due to a planned new development across the road. A computer model is built showing the layouts before and after the planned development (see above).

Sky factors are then computed at the working plane within the obstructed building both before and after the the planned development. The images to the right show the computed sky factor contours scaled to a maximum value of 0.2% (the 'grumble' line). In this case they show that the planned development has little impact.

computed sky factor before and after planned development

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