Legal Assistance for Dog Nuisance and Neighborhood Problems

Questioner

Dear, Our neighbors have dozens (up to 30) dogs, in a residential area and it is not a registered kennel or anything like that. (The enforcement of the municipality has already been to look and gives me the message: "they are going to reduce the number a bit." Well.. 5, 10, 20 or 30, this is not going to make a difference for us as long as the complaints below continue to exist) We have often reported all kinds of nuisances to the police (20 to 30 times in 2 years or so...), ranging from noise pollution from extremely loud music, to noise pollution from dogs, to dogs coming into our garden. In response to all the reports, there has already been neighborhood mediation at our request. After this, the situation has already improved somewhat, certainly with regard to the noise pollution from the music (I have to say: we are actually no longer bothered by this at the moment). The dogs remain a problem.. Today I called the "enforcement" service of the municipality again. They are aware of the situation, but as always no concrete solution or information is given. There are also other residents of the street who have complaints about barking dogs, horse poop on the street, etc. (yes, they also have 4 horses in their garden). my complaints about the nuisance caused by the dogs: - noise nuisance dogs: from about 6am until regularly after 10pm there are dogs barking in their garden. This is often in parts, because they are regularly kept indoors. But every time they let the dogs in their garden the barking is there. (now in the summer we wake up every morning from barking dogs because our windows are open..). - dogs in our yard: 1 of their dogs bit our 4 chickens to death this morning after he had come onto our property for the umpteenth time. I first knocked a few times to tell them that the dog was with us again, but without an answer at the door.. I succeeded in chasing the dog away each time, but after a few minutes he was back. So we called the police again, and just before they arrived the dog had killed all 4 of our chickens. The police just saw the dog walking around with one of our chickens in his mouth. So this was the 2nd time that this dog killed our chickens! The dogs also do their business on our lawn every time. Concretely: 1- Is it legal to keep 30 dogs in a residential area? Isn't there a maximum number of dogs in the law for a private home without a kennel permit or something like that? 2- What else can we do about the nuisance caused by dogs? 3- How many horses are you allowed to keep in a residential area, in a built-up area?

Lawyer

The neighbourhood will have to investigate whether rules are being violated. These can be municipal rules that are included in a zoning plan or APV. If rules are being violated, the neighbourhood can request the municipality to actually take enforcement action. If this does not happen, legal remedies such as objection and later appeal are available. If the municipality does not respond to the enforcement request in time, a fine can be imposed on it. There is also the civil route for nuisance of neighbours. This route is admittedly a bit more expensive but will sooner have the desired result. Even consider summary proceedings. Finally, there are certainly rules being violated under criminal law, for example those relating to animal welfare. The above situation and, in which legal area, one or more - this can be resolved will should be investigated by a lawyer. Since you are together, it may be worth it!