Conflicts in the countryside between neo-rurals and farmers: neighborhood unrest redefined in a law this Monday

Le texte ne cible pas que le monde rural mais s'adresse tout particulièrement au monde agricole. Illustration Pixabay

Animals that make too much noise or that stink from the nuisance of agricultural machinery… Life in the countryside is not always easy, contrary to what the collective imagination conveys. To redefine what constitutes neighborhood disturbances, a bill is about to be definitively adopted.

Because there have been numerous cases pitting farmers against neighbors, potentially neo-rural residents living near farms, Parliament is preparing to adopt a text against neighborhood conflicts on Monday, April 8 .

After broad adoption in the Senate, it is the National Assembly which must give the final green light to this bill from MP Renaissance Nicole around 5 p.m. Le Peih (Morbihan), trained farmer.

Sounds and smells

The text intends to respond to the increase in disputes, when new arrivals complain about noise or fumes from neighboring farms, particularly from animals.

"If we choose the campaign, we must accept it as it is, with those who bring it to life", the Minister of Justice argued in the Senate Eric Dupond-Moretti, emphasizing that the law "is intended to apply to all neighborhood relationships".

Codify the notion of "abnormal neighborhood disturbance"

"The neighbors of the cities are just as concerned as the neighbors of the fields", he insisted, even if the agricultural world is the first targeted.

The bill enshrines in the civil code the principle of liability based on "abnormal neighborhood disturbances". This notion already existed in case law but was not codified.

And an exception will be provided to this new civil liability: when the disorder arises from activities pre-existing at the installation of the complainant.

"For us, it's about listening to all of our territories and hearing the legitimate concerns of farmers' quot;, argued MP Nicole Le Peih when parliamentarians met in a joint committee (seven senators and seven deputies) to arrive at the common version submitted to the vote on Monday.

The exception of upgrades

"Sometimes, neo-rural people do not realize that the countryside is a place of activities that must be able to be carried out", also explained Senator Françoise Gatel (UDI), rapporteur in the upper house.

🙏Adoption par le Sénat de la proposition de loi facilitant la concorde entre ceux qui font vivre nos territoires, nous nourrissent et ceux qui découvrent que la campagne est aussi un lieu d'activités#PPLAdapterLaResponsabilitéCivileAuxEnjeuxActuels@E_DupondM@NicoleLePeih pic.twitter.com/6AJICo9do2

— Françoise GATEL (@FrancoiseGatel) April 3, 2024

Another request from the agricultural world: abnormal neighborhood disturbance will not be characterized in the case where the activities result from upgrading following the installation of the person ;#39;considering wronged, or that there is no "substantial modification of their nature or their intensity".

"For example, when a breeder of laying hens is forced to move from battery farming to free-range farming, his activity must evolve accordingly. important but will not constitute a disturbance,” detailed Françoise Gatel.