A vegan woman in Perth, Australia has taken her neighbors to court over complaints about cooking smells coming from a backyard barbecue, saying that she’s fed up with the odors and that she just wants to live in peace, Perth Nine News reported.
Cilla Carden, a massage therapist and vegan, says that her neighbors have ruined her quality of life, and she pointed to the barbecue in particular.
“They’ve put it there so I smell fish, all I can smell is fish,” she told Perth Nine News. “I can’t enjoy my backyard, I can’t go out there.”
It’s not just the barbecue that she has taken issue with, however.
She also complained about her neighbor Toan Vu’s kids playing basketball.
“They’ve banged their basketballs, and it vibrates this part of the house,” she said. “It’s been devastating.”
Carden’s complaints aren’t even limited to one neighbor.
With neighbors on either side of her property, she says cigarette smoke,the sound of chairs being dragged across concrete, light reflections, and pet birds have all impacted her quality of life.
“It’s been devastating, it’s been turmoil, it’s been unrest, I haven’t been able to sleep,” she said.
And so Carden took her neighbor to court, asking the magistrates to put an end to the situation.
“It’s deliberate, that’s what I told the court, it’s deliberate,” she said.
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However, to this point, the courts have not been on her side, with the State Administrative Tribunal dismissing her case and the Supreme Court of Western Australia upholding that dismissal.
For his part, Vu has removed the grill from his backyard.
And he also told his kids to stop playing basketball in the garden, saying that he just wants to keep the peace.
Other neighbors have not been so accommodating for Carden, however.
“Ms Carden’s demands were proven to be not reasonable and indeed were to the detriment of the other owners’ ability to enjoy their lots in a reasonable and acceptable manner,” one was quoted as saying.
Still, Carden has said she’s planning another court battle to continue the fight.
This is despite the Supreme Court ruling urging the neighbors to sort the situation out among themselves.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Peter Quinlan wrote that the parties should “direct their considerable energies towards the resolution of their differences as best they can” in his ruling.
As one lawyer noted, this is not the normal situation for a dispute between neighbors.
“Going to the Supreme Court is an extreme option,” John Hammond said. “If you’re having a dispute, the first step is you should go next door and try and sort it out face-to-face, because if you don’t do it that way, you’re going to be up for a world of misery.”
Carden says that none of this is what she ever wanted anyway.
“Exactly what I’ve wanted from the word go is to live my life in peace and to get on with my life,” she said.
h/t Perth Nine News , The Guardian
