A woman in Australia has sued her neighbours in a bid to stop them from using their barbecues.
The woman known as Cilla Carden who resides in Perth claimed that their activities among them barbecuing and smoking -as well as their noisy children, breached residential laws.
She sought legal orders to prevent the alleged nuisances from continuing. A tribunal and the state’s highest court rejected her claims as unreasonable and lacking in evidence.
Her list of demands also included orders for a family living next door, and another neighbour, to reduce their patio lighting, silence their pets and to replace plants in the common garden. She alleged that wafting smells of cigarettes and barbecues had caused “undue offence” to her in her home in the Perth suburb of Girrawheen, according to a Supreme Court of Western Australia judgement published in July.
“They’ve put [the barbecue] there so I smell fish – all I can smell is fish,” Ms Carden, who is a vegan, I can’t enjoy my backyard, I can’t go out there,” she said.
The State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia rejected her demands in a case hearing in February – including a request for her neighbour’s children to be quiet when playing outside.
The tribunal also noted that the same family had already moved their barbecue prior to the hearing in an attempt to appease Ms Carden.
Ms Carden challenged the tribunal’s decision in the Supreme Court of Western Australia in March. In handing down his rejection in July, the judge noted that she had submitted close to 400 pages in her appeal.
Ms Carden told Australian media she plans on taking further legal action.
