In MTR Corp Ltd v Cheung Ching Kin ([2015] HKEC 1535, LT) MTR Corp (the applicant) was appointed Manager of an estate in Tseung Kwan O. The respondent was the owner of a flat on the estate occupied by his daughter (he had moved out). There were persistent and well-documented complaints of frequent loud hammering noises in the flat in the late night or early hours of the morning. The Tribunal had no hesitation in finding that these noises amounted to a nuisance. The applicant sought an injunction to restrain the nuisance. The relevant provision prohibited owners from doing anything which might be a nuisance or cause damage or annoyance to other owners and occupiers or to the public. There was also a prohibition on producing music or noise that might cause a nuisance to other users of the development. These covenants were extended; owners could not ‘permit or suffer’ a breach of the covenant. Here the noise was produced by the owner’s daughter, not the owner himself, so the question was whether he had permitted or suffered his daughter to cause the noise.
In Realty Harvest Limited & Others v Gold Margin Development Limited ([2001] 1 HKC 234, CA) the Court of Appeal endorsed the proposition that ‘permit’ and ‘suffer’ are synonyms. ‘Permit’:
‘ means one of two things, either to give leave for an act which without that leave could not be legally done, or to abstain from taking reasonable steps to prevent the act where it is within a man’s power to prevent it. Acts which fall short of that, though they be acts of sympathy or assistance, do not amount to permission at any rate in the covenants with which we are dealing.’
(Berton & Others v Alliance Economic Investment Company Limited [1922] 1 KB 742 at 759 per Atkins LJ).
The owner needs to know of the breach before he can be said to have permitted it ([38]). The owner knew of the breach and had taken no steps to prevent the noise problem from continuing. The injunction was granted.
Michael Lower
