The Yokohama District Court has ordered a homeowner and builder to remove 12 solar panels from a house and pay 220,000 yen in compensation to two neighbors who said light reflecting from the panels prevented them from performing normal daily activities.
According to the ruling, 19 solar panels were installed on the south and north sides of the roof in April 2008 by builder Tama Home Co. and the homeowner in Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama.
Judge Tetsuji Sato said in the ruling Thursday that two neighbors suffered psychological distress from having their daily lives disturbed by the reflections. For example, the neighbors had to wear sunglasses when they hung out laundry on their balcony.
The plaintiffs sought the removal of 12 solar panels that were facing their home and compensation of 2.2 million yen.
Tama Home told the court it was unable to predict possible problems as there had been no similar cases.
Link here.
Interesting ruling: on one hand it may prevent home builders to just dump some construction at some place without consideration for neighbors.
On the other hand, we are talking here about the sun being redirected to one's windows. These panels are flat, so it is not as if the sun light would be concentrated through parabolic mirrors.
Aahhh, Japan, the land where the rising sun causes psychological distress...
8O8O8O8O8O
