A drone has been buzzing over my garden and I’m sure it’s snooping which makes me furious. What are my rights?
K. S., Southsea, Hants.
Dean Dunham replies: Let me start by dispelling a myth. Most people believe that they effectively own the airspace above their property, which would mean that flying a drone over your house or garden is trespassing.
Unfortunately, this is not true. To throw some authority and law at this, in a case called Bernstein of Leigh v Skyviews & General Ltd 1978, the court clarified that landowners’ rights extend only to the height necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of their land, and the structures upon it – and not to the unlimited airspace above it.
The Civil Aviation Act 1982 affirms that no action for trespass or nuisance applies to aircraft (including drones) flying at a reasonable height. In other words, the landowner typically cannot sue for trespass or nuisance.
It is a common myth that people own the airspace above their own property – in fact your rights only extend to the height necessary for ordinary use and enjoyment of the land
However, a drone operator would cross the line if they flew over private property frequently and at a fairly low level, making noise or hovering and causing distress. In these circumstances, the property owner could report the matter to the local authority as a statutory nuisance.
The drone operator may be collecting personal data such as images of individuals, which is governed by what we commonly refer to as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018), meaning they must comply with certain legal principles and respect an individual’s rights.
If any of the footage captured by the drone captures you or your family in a way that invades your privacy, protections under the Data Protection Act and GDPR will engage to protect you. In these circumstances, you can demand that such footage is deleted and/or removed from any platform (like YouTube) that it has been posted on.
In the first instance, if you know who is operating the drone, explain to them that this is causing you distress and you do not consent to any video or pictures being taken. You should follow this up with a written request for it to stop. If this does not work, you could report the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) and the local authority.
I went to the cinema but the sound was too loud to be comfortable so I had to leave halfway through. It left my ears ringing. Can I get my money back?
M. H., Liverpool.
Dean Dunham replies: According to Section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, ‘services’ must be provided with ‘reasonable care and skill’.
A cinema falls within this, meaning that if the sound level is too high (or indeed too low), causing the experience to be uncomfortable or difficult, it will almost certainly be a breach of the Consumer Rights Act.
However, what would be deemed too loud or too quiet would be a subjective test, so you would have to show that the reasonable consumer would have found the sound level to be too loud or quiet.
In this respect, the burden of proof rests with you as the consumer, meaning you must prove that the reasonable consumer would have agreed with your assessment; the cinema, therefore, does not have to disprove this. So evidence is important.
If you could find other users of the cinema who have the same view as you about the sound, this would almost certainly be enough to prove your position. If you cannot achieve this, you will have to ask the cinema what the sound level was and seek advice from another cinema operator as to whether this is a reasonable sound level or not.
If you are able to prove your position, you will be able to demand a remedy – typically either free tickets to watch the movie again (this time at a reasonable sound level) or a refund.
Usually, when this provision of the Consumer Rights Act is breached, you will be entitled to a ‘partial’ refund, in recognition of the fact that you only received part of the service. However, you would be entitled to a full refund as you do not benefit from watching part of a film and will not be able to pay to watch only the part you haven’t seen elsewhere.
