Couple win £1,000 payout over footballs kicked into garden of their £2m home
A wealthy couple have been awarded a £1,000 payout after 170 footballs were kicked into their garden from a neighbouring school.
Mohamed and Marie-Anne Bakhaty said the balls and noise from an all-weather play area by their £2 million home in Winchester meant they could no longer use their swimming pool and were forced to cancel their annual summer party because of the 'nuisance'.
The couple took the matter to a High Court judge, seeking an injunction prohibiting the use of the £36,000 play area. The judge ruled that repeatedly kicking football over a neighbour's fence and into their garden is 'a nuisance'.
While occasional stray balls might be annoying, the 'frequent projection' of them onto someone else's property breaches common law, he added.
Mrs Bakhaty, a 66-year-old company director, claimed the sports pitch had 'overtaken my life'. Mr Bakhaty, a 77-year-old property developer, claimed the school 'deliberately' built it to 'upset' the couple.
Judge Philip Glen ruled that the footballs were creating a 'nuisance' for the couple and that there was a period when a 'significant' number were landing in the garden of their home.
'Lost perspective'
However, while he awarded the Bakhatys £1,000 in damages, he said they had ultimately 'lost perspective' and become 'over-invested' in their belief that they were 'victims of a wrong'.
The court, sitting in Southampton, heard that Mr and Mrs Bakhaty moved into their home in the Fulflood district of the cathedral city in 1994. The property neighbours The Westgate School.
In 2021, money was raised to transform a grassed playground at the school into an all-weather play area. The area, marked as a five-a-side football pitch, is surrounded by a green wired fence and is around two metres from the boundary of the couple's home.
The judge noted that the pitch was not only used during the week but also at weekends because the school rents it out to external organisations.
In October 2022, Mr and Mrs Bakhaty issued a High Court claim against Hampshire county council, alleging the noise and escape of footballs amounted to 'a common law nuisance'.
Mrs Bakhaty estimated that 170 balls dropped into the garden over an 11-month period and said she could no longer use either her pool or summerhouse.
The judge said that when he made a site visit to the house, some 20 footballs lined the flowerbeds of the garden.
However, the school put a net over the pitch to prevent balls going astray in July 2022, and the interference had been reduced since then, he added.
'The occasional ball over the fence since that time, something common to many gardens, whilst annoying is not at a sufficient level to be a substantial interference,' he found.
Injunction not appropriate
In light of these comments, Judge Glen said it would not be appropriate to grant an injunction. But he ordered the council to pay the couple £1,000 in damages for the period in which there was 'excessive use' of the play area and when significant numbers of balls were crossing the boundary fence.
He ruled that the use of the pitch by third parties outside of school hours was not done 'conveniently' and was 'therefore a nuisance to that extent', adding that 'the frequent projection of balls' from the pitch was 'a nuisance'.
But, he said of the couple's complaint: 'I fear, however, that they have become sensitised by the noise from the school in a way which has caused them to become over-invested in their belief that they are victims of a wrong. In short, they have lost perspective.'
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