According to a court ruling, neighbors of residential buildings with solar panels on the roof have to accept that light reflections can occur there.
In July, the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by residents who had complained about reflections from the sun, the court announced on Thursday.
Modules of a photovoltaic system were installed on the roof of the neighbors in the direction of the plaintiffs (Az.: 8 U 166/21).
The plaintiffs had asserted that they were being blinded to an unreasonable extent by the reflection of the sun's rays.
They referred to technical standards and regulations according to which light emissions are to be evaluated.
There are certain limits that have been exceeded in this case.
The residents demanded that the reflections be removed.
Expert could only determine brightening at the on-site visit
However, the Higher Regional Court could not follow this view.
According to the findings of an expert, no significant impairment can be assumed, the eighth civil senate ruled.
In one of the plaintiffs' living rooms, light reflections only occur on 60 days a year and for a total of less than 20 hours.
For this information, the expert evaluated the location of the residential buildings, the angle of inclination of the system, the position of the sun and weather data.
According to the court, during an on-site visit by the expert, only a brightening could be determined without the eyes being dazzled.
It is true that the plaintiff's property is fundamentally affected.
According to current case law, however, the criterion for this is the perception of a “reasonable average person”.
There were no other laws or guidelines for this.
The information from a working group for immission control is not legally binding and is still above the values determined.
The Goettingen District Court had previously dismissed the lawsuit in the first instance.