What is a Nuisance?

Contents

• General Definition
• Court Definition of Nuisance
• Statutes Defining Nuisances
• Sample Local Government Provisions Defining Nuisances
• MRSC Related Page
  • Comprehensive Nuisance Control Ordinances

General Definition

In very general terms a nuisance is something that annoys -- a wearing on the nerves by a persistent unpleasantness. It can evoke anger and interfere with comfort and peace of mind. In a regulatory environment the term nuisance embraces anything that results in an invasion of one's legal rights. A nuisance involves an unreasonable or unlawful use of property which results in material annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort, or damage to another person or to the public.  The unlawful use may involve doing something (example: piling garbage on residential property) or failing to do something (example: cutting or removing noxious weeds from residential property).

Nuisances are sometimes called nuisances because they are remedied by abatement.  Common nuisances include the accumulation of  junk, animals, noise, dangerous buildings, sewage and  unsanitary conditions, and encroachments on public right-of-way which interfere with pedestrian passage.  The words abate and abatement are the legal terms used to describe the process for putting an end to, or terminating the nuisance.

Court Definition of Nuisance

In its deliberations over Riblet v. Spokane-Portland Cement Company, 41 Wn.2d 249, 254, 248 P.2d 380 (1952) the court asked and responded to the question,  "What is a nuisance?"   The court said....

Statutes Defining Nuisances

In Washington there are two sets of statutes that deal with nuisances: Chapter 7.48 RCW pertains to civil procedures for abating  nuisances and Chapter 9.66 RCW  pertains to criminal procedures for abating  nuisances. The following are the statutory definitions of nuisances from these chapters:

Sample Local Government Provisions Defining Nuisances

• Grandview Municipal Code Section  8.24.010 - Definitions....    F. 2. "Public Nuisances" include but are not limited to the following: violations of zoning regulations, building code standards and regulations, utility regulations and standards, environmental regulations and standards, noncompliance with the city's comprehensive plan or planning goals under the Washington State Growth Management Act; violations of business license regulations, illegal discharges of sewage; the operation of offensive, odoriferous or unsanitary businesses; accumulations of refuse constituting fire or safety hazards; any land use activity which depreciates land values, is unsightly, creates excessive noise, fumes, odors, or unsanitary conditions, creates danger from fire and/or explosion, creates traffic hazards, or activities which pose a danger to public health, safety or welfare or the economic well-being of the community.

• Ellensburg Municipal Code 5.40.04 Maintaining a Nuisance. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to carry on any trade or business which disturbs the quiet of the City, or renders the air impure or pollutes or renders impure the waters used by the inhabitants of the City, or to allow any obnoxious or offensive substance to accumulate in or upon any lot owned or occupied by such person or persons within said City, or to accumulate in front of or upon any sidewalk, street, alley or public highway of said City or to obstruct any street, public highway or sidewalk of said City, or to carry on any indecent or immoral business within the City limits (Ord. 3493 s2, 1985)
• Lynnwood Municipal Code Section 16.08.210  - Definitions....
      6. "Nuisance" includes:
      a.  a nuisance defined by statute or ordinance;
      b.  a nuisance at common law either public or private;
      c.  an attractive nuisance, whether in or on a building, a building premises or an     unoccupied lot and whether realty, fixture or chattel, which might reasonably be expected to attract children of tender years and constitute a danger to them; including, but not limited to, abandoned wells, ice boxes or refrigerators with doors and latches, shafts, basements or other excavations, abandoned or inoperative vehicles or other equipment, structurally unsound fences or other fixtures, lumber, fencing, vegetation or other debris;
      d.   uncleanliness or whatever is dangerous to human life or detrimental to health; or    e.  abandonment or vacancy.
• Vancouver Code Section 8.20.010 - Nuisance defined.    A nuisance consists in doing an unlawful act, or omitting to perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist which act or omission, condition or thing either:
      (a)     Annoys, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others;
      (b)     Offends decency;
      (c)     Is offensive to the senses;
      (d)    Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passengers any stream, public park, parkway, square, street or highway in the city of Vancouver;
      (e)     In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property;
      (f)     Obstructs the free use of property so as to essentially interfere with the reasonable and comfortable use thereof.
      (g)     Normal accepted practices of agriculture and mineral resource activities shall not be considered a nuisance unless the activity has a substantial adverse effect on the public health and safety. (Ord. M-517 § 1, 1960)

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