Poetic justice is dunny and dusted

Italy’s top court has enshrined the right to protection from loud ­toilets flushing in the night after a 19-year legal battle.

Italy’s La Spezia is also known as the Gulf of Poets.

Italy’s top court has enshrined the right to protection from loud ­toilets flushing in the night after a 19-year legal battle.

The case began in 2003 when a couple living in a flat near La Spezia – in the famous Gulf of Poets – complained that a new bathroom installed by their neighbours made an intolerable noise that prevented them getting a good night’s sleep.

After a judge rejected their plea that the loo be removed, the couple then took their case to the court of appeal, which ordered an examination of the neighbouring flat, owned by four brothers. The men had fitted a second bathroom near the couple’s bedroom. The water closet was lodged in the wall, which was only 22cm thick, and close to the bedhead.

The appeal court deemed this an “unscrupulous use of shared space” and said the interference amounted to a violation of the right to the free exercise of daily habits, which was protected by the Italian constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The latter explicitly protects the right to respect for a person’s privacy and home.

The appeal court ordered the brothers to move the water tank and to pay the couple €500 ($792) a year from when it was installed.

The brothers went to the ­supreme court in Rome, which found that acoustic measurements had established that the sound of flushing exceeded the legal limit by three decibels.

Despite the building being in the Gulf of Poets, frequented by Byron and Shelley, the area was quiet at night, the court heard.

The Times