Can you get compensation for aircraft noise?

People who live with aircraft noise often assume someone must owe them for it. The law mostly points the other way: in the UK, planes flying over homes within the rules are protected from nuisance claims, and the main help on offer is practical rather than financial. But there are real schemes and a few real rights, and it is worth knowing whether any of them reach your address.

What is on offer

Insulation and relocation schemes

For most people, the realistic help is an airport's own scheme. Insulation grants are the most common, and our guide to airport noise insulation schemes covers who qualifies and how to apply.

Some airports also pay towards the cost of moving for homes in the loudest areas. In the UK, the government's Aviation Policy Framework of 2013 says it expects airports to offer households exposed to 69 dB LAeq,16h or more help with the costs of moving. Examples:

• Heathrow pays eligible owners inside its 2019 69 dB contour £10,000 plus 1% of the sale price, up to a maximum of £20,000, when they move to a quieter area outside the scheme. You must have owned or lived in the home before 31 December 2022, and long-term tenants with at least three years left may qualify if the home is being sold.
• Manchester pays owner-occupiers inside its 2002 69 dB contour who lived there before January 2004, and move beyond its 63 dB contour, £3,000. For homes selling for more than £125,000 it adds 1% of the sale price, capped at what a £250,000 sale would get.
• Gatwick says that once its northern runway is in use, homes very close to the airport and inside its 66 dB contour will be offered reasonable moving costs, stamp duty and a 1% estate agent's fee.

These schemes are help, not compensation, and each stops at a line on a map. A home just outside the contour gets nothing, however loud it seems. Our guide to official noise maps explains how those lines are drawn and what they miss.

Compensation for a new or altered runway in the UK

Part I of the Land Compensation Act 1973 gives property owners a right to compensation when the value of their property falls because of "physical factors" from the use of new public works, including airports. Those factors are noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, artificial lighting and anything discharged onto the land. Noise from planes arriving and departing counts even when they are outside the airport boundary.

The limits are tight:

• Only certain changes count. A new airport, or runway or apron alterations: a new runway, a major realignment, extension or strengthening of an existing runway, or a substantial taxiway or apron addition to handle more aircraft. More flights on the existing runways do not count, however many there are.
• Only owners who were there first. You must have owned the property before the works came into use. For a home, that means the freehold or a lease with at least three years left, and you must live there.
• Only from one year on. You can claim from the "first claim day", 12 months after the works first come into use, and the claim is valued at prices on that day. The time limit is generally six years from then. If you sell during the first 12 months, you must claim between exchange of contracts and completion.
• Only over £50, which is rarely the obstacle. Reasonable valuation and legal fees are paid on top, with interest from the date of the claim.

The claim is made against the airport operator, and the benefit of any airport-funded soundproofing is taken into account, which can reduce the payment. A new runway, such as the third runway planned at Heathrow, is exactly the kind of work these rules cover. A chartered surveyor who handles compensation claims can tell you whether you qualify.

Why suing for noise rarely works in the UK

The Civil Aviation Act 1982 closes most doors:

• Section 76 says no action for trespass or nuisance can be brought just because an aircraft flew over property at a reasonable height, given the wind, the weather and the circumstances, as long as it kept to the air navigation rules.
• Section 77 does the same for noise and vibration from aircraft on an aerodrome covered by an Air Navigation Order, as long as its conditions are met.

Councils can't help either: the law on statutory nuisance excludes aircraft noise, other than from model aircraft.

Human rights claims have not changed this. In Hatton and Others v the United Kingdom (2003), residents argued that the night flight rules at Heathrow breached their right to respect for their home and private life. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights disagreed by 12 votes to 5. It did find, by 16 votes to 1, that they had lacked an effective remedy in the UK courts of the time.

Physical damage is different. Under section 76(2), if an aircraft, or a person or object falling from it, causes material loss or damage while in flight, taking off or landing, the owner is liable without you having to prove negligence. Near Heathrow, the airport's own scheme repairs roof tiles disturbed by the wake of landing planes.

This is a summary of the rules, not legal advice. If you are thinking of a claim, speak to a solicitor or a chartered surveyor first.

In the United States

US help is organised through the FAA's noise compatibility programmes (Part 150). Airports can get federal grants for sound insulation, and to buy land and relocate residents, generally only for homes inside the DNL 65 dB contour unless a lower local standard has been formally adopted. Insulation funded this way must cut indoor noise by at least 5 dB and bring it below 45 dB.

US property owners have one route the UK doesn't offer. In United States v Causby (1946), the Supreme Court held that flights so low and frequent that they directly interfere with the use of land can amount to a taking of property, which must be paid for. In Griggs v Allegheny County (1962), it held that the airport's owner was the one liable. The test is demanding: the flights must be so low and so frequent that they directly interfere with the use of the land. Federal law also limits damages claims by people who bought after a noise exposure map for the airport was published, unless operations changed significantly afterwards.

In Europe

Rules vary by country. Three examples:

• Germany. Under the Aircraft Noise Protection Act, homes in an airport's inner daytime zone or its night zone can, on conditions, have the cost of soundproofing reimbursed by the airport, up to €150 per square metre of living space. At new or substantially expanded airports, owners in the inner daytime zone can also claim a one-off payment for the impaired use of gardens, terraces and other outdoor living space: for example €5,000 for a single-family house where daytime noise is above 65 dB, or 2% of its market value if they show that is more. Claims must be made within five years of the right arising.
• France. Homes in the zones of an airport's noise nuisance plan (plan de gêne sonore) can get insulation aid funded from a tax on aircraft noise: 80% of the cost as standard, 90% for lower-income households and 100% for some benefit recipients.
• The Netherlands. People who suffer a loss, including a fall in property value, from changes to Schiphol's official airport rules can apply for compensation within five years.

What to expect

For most people near an airport, there will be no cheque. The practical steps are to find out which scheme boundaries your home falls inside, apply for any insulation or relocation help you qualify for, and keep an eye on planned runways and other works, because that is when compensation rights arise and when consultations can change the terms of the schemes. It also helps to know how many loud planes your home actually hears, by day and at night, whichever side of the official lines it falls.