Prasanth 23 January 2026

Persistent nuisance with neighbouring construction

Hello, I'm looking for suggestions on legal steps I can take to deal with a persistent nuisance of builder constructing apartment in neighbouring site in Hyderabad. The couple of issues need to be dealt with: 1. Labourers are being sheltered in the ground floor of the apartment under construction. They burn wood multiple times a day since the past 2 years to cook and the smoke is entering our house resulting in respiratory issues. There were days when this used to disturb our sleep as they were starting to burn wood as early as 5 AM in the morning. Bringing this issue to the notice of the builder did not help in resolving it. It is being entirely neglected. Additionally, tobacco smoking by the the construction workers is further making the issue worse. And there is squabbling and shouting that starts early in the morning and continues through the rest of the day. 2. The builder did not properly take care to cordon off the site under construction which has resulted in chunks of cement, debris and paint falling on our property and vehicles. I am staring at an expense of beyond 2 lakhs in order to fix the damage caused which includes, removing the cement spots & chunks from walls, roof and flooring, repainting the house, repainting / treating cars for cement and paint spots. Another thing worth noting is that the apartment is being constructed by falsely registering a tiny portion of land reserved for open areas of the layout in which we are residing and obtaining permission for 5 floors which otherwise would not have been possible. Any suggestions and leads regarding the steps I could take to address these issues as the law permits would be of great help. Thanks in advance.

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4 Replies

kavksatyanarayana (subregistrar/supdt.(retired)) 23 January 2026

You shall complain against the builder at the Police Station/Municipality for creating a nuisance and the falling of burning wood, smoke, cementing spots, chunks, etc. You can obtain a copy of the approved plan sanctioned to the builder from the Municipality under RTI and then proceed legally.

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate) 23 January 2026

Hyderabad city has legal remedies for the public nuisance, private nuisance, environmental violations, and construction-law breaches that you have mentioned here.

You can file a written complaint to the GHMC describing the incidents and the illegal activities of the builder in the name of cosntructions including the illegal stay of laborers in the complex and disturbing others by their cooking activities and other issues that have disturbed you constantly for the past two years.

Simultaneously you can lodge a complaint with the local police also about the nuisance that they cause.

Builder has absolute duty of care to protect neighbouring properties especially to take care of the falling debris and his negligence to control or protect the neighbors' properties being damaged due to this.

Alternately you can issue a legal notice thorough a local advocate mentioning the acts of negligence of the builder in the process of construction and warn hiom of legal action both through criminal and civil law for punishments and compensation

Dr. J C Vashista (Advocate ) 24 January 2026

Very well analysed, opined and advised by learned experts, I agree.

Prasanth 01 February 2026

Hello,

Thank You for replying.

I previously complained to the police and muncipality regarding the same issues. While the police helped in ensuring the builder ties up green mats and cleans up the debis & also with stopping loud noises early in the mornings, both the police and muncipality are not seeing the smoke and dust as a serious issue and the police suggested contacting muncipality for the relevant civil issues.

As such I need help with the following:

Ensure builder puts up appropriate covering to prevent dust, debris and smoke do not enter our premises until all work is completed.
Compensates for the damage and distress caused and being caused due to the carelessness/negligence by the builder.
No construction work involving loud noises would be done before 9:00AM and after 6:00PM during weekdays and also no activity involving loud noises during Sundays / public holidays.
Ensure the careless attitude does not continue even in the future.

I'm looking forward to any help I could get if it requires taking legal recourse, but without incurring unreasonable costs. Since I've never had experience with legal matters, I am not sure who I could contact and what would be due process involved.

I even want to fight up against the encroachment if that's what ensures things would fall in line.

P.S. - I was unable to login to my account nor reset password until today, so the delay in responding.