Short answer. If your neighbour has acquired a real right to a direct view over your land, Article 673 stops you, as the servient owner, from building closer than three meters to that opening. The three meters are measured in the way Article 671 prescribes, and any agreement setting a shorter distance than the law allows is void.

What the law says

the owner of the servient estate cannot build thereon at less than a distance of three meters to be measured in the manner provided in article 671

Civil Code, Article 673 — Servient Owner's Building Setback. Read the full provision →

The three-meter setback for an acquired view

Article 673 applies where your neighbour has a genuine right to the view, not a mere opening. It provides that Whenever by any title a right has been acquired to have direct views, balconies or belvederes overlooking an adjoining property, the owner of the servient estate cannot build thereon at less than a distance of three meters. Once such an easement of view exists, your land carries the burden, and your right to build on it is cut back near that window. You may still build — but not within the protected strip that keeps the neighbour's acquired view from being immediately walled off.

How the three meters are measured

The distance is not guessed at; the article ties it to a fixed method, requiring it to be measured in the manner provided in article 671. Article 671 explains that for direct views the measurement runs from the outer line of the wall when the openings do not project, and from the outer line of the opening when they do; for oblique views it runs from the dividing line between the two properties. So before assuming your planned structure is too close, measure from the correct starting point. Where you begin measuring can be the difference between a lawful wall and one that violates the easement.

You cannot agree your way below the legal minimum

The article closes with a firm limit on private bargaining: Any stipulation permitting distances less than those prescribed in article 670 is void. Article 670 sets the base distances for windows and views — two meters for direct views and sixty centimeters for oblique ones. Because those minimums protect a public interest in light, air and privacy between neighbours, an agreement trying to shrink them has no legal effect. A neighbour cannot validly "waive" below the floor, and you cannot rely on such a clause to build nearer than the Code allows. The protection is built into the law, not left to negotiation.

First check whether the right actually exists

This setback only bites when the neighbour has truly acquired a right to the view "by any title" — for example, by grant or by the manner the law recognises for such easements. A window that merely happens to look over your lot, without a corresponding right, does not automatically impose the three-meter burden, though the separate distance rules for opening windows may still apply. So the first question is whether an easement of view exists at all. If it does, respect the three meters measured under Article 671; if it does not, your building rights on your own land are far wider.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.