Despite the robust and unqualified tone of this opening quotation, new construction works are in fact often designed—or built—in such a way that they infringe the rights of adjoining (or nearby) owners or occupiers of land or buildings. The plans may call for a building which will block or reduce the light to a neighbour’s windows, be bigger than is allowed for the site or is designed for purposes not permitted; as built, the structure or its foundations may encroach on neighbouring land, or at least the materials or temporary works may; or a drum of transmission fluid kept on site for the JCB may leak and contaminate neighbouring gardens. In any of these scenarios, an unhappy neighbour may threaten legal action in the civil courts; in some situations he or she may even have a right of self-help. If litigation follows, the neighbour will often aim to get an injunction to prevent, stop or reverse the unwelcome construction project, or change the way it is being undertaken; and may also, or instead, seek damages for invasion of property rights.3 “Neighbour” is used here just to identify those affected by a construction project: it has no precise meaning as a legal term, except as the gateway to rights and remedies described more fully below.