Short answer. No. Article 1143 of the Civil Code lists the right to bring an action to abate a public or private nuisance among the rights that are not extinguished by prescription. Delay in complaining does not, by itself, bar your neighbor from later suing to abate the nuisance.
What the law says
The following rights, among others specified elsewhere in this Code, are not extinguished by prescription
Civil Code, Article 1143 — Rights That Never Prescribe. Read the full provision →
What the law says
To bring an action to abate a public or private nuisance.
Civil Code, Article 1143 — Rights That Never Prescribe. Read the full provision →
Why a nuisance action is treated differently
A public nuisance affects the community generally, and a private nuisance keeps interfering with a neighbor's use of their own property for as long as it continues. Letting ordinary prescription rules bar the action simply because the affected person waited would let a nuisance become permanently protected through inaction, regardless of how much ongoing harm it causes. Article 1143 avoids that outcome by placing the abatement action outside prescription's reach entirely.
Some rights are simply outside prescription's reach
Most rights and actions can be lost through the ordinary passage of time, but Article 1143 marks out a short list that is different. The following rights, among others specified elsewhere in this Code, are not extinguished by prescription. Two specific rights are named directly in the article, and the action to abate a nuisance is one of them, alongside the right to demand a right of way.
The nuisance action, named directly
Article 1143 states it without qualification: the right to bring an action to abate a public or private nuisance is one of the rights prescription cannot extinguish. Whether the nuisance affects your neighbor as a member of the public, or affects their property specifically, the action to have it abated stays available regardless of how much time has passed since it began or since your neighbor first noticed it.
Why delay does not work against your neighbor here
For most claims, waiting too long is exactly what triggers prescription and bars the action. Article 1143 removes that consequence for a nuisance action specifically — your neighbor's silence or delay in complaining does not, on its own, forfeit the right to sue to abate the nuisance later, because this right was never subject to being extinguished by the passage of time in the first place.
What this does not decide
Article 1143 settles that the right to sue survives regardless of delay — it does not by itself determine whether the condition your neighbor is complaining about actually qualifies as a nuisance, or what remedy a court would order if it does. Those are separate questions from whether prescription bars the action, which is the specific point this article addresses, and they would still need to be established on their own facts.
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.
- Juan B. Bañez, Jr. vs. Hon. Crisanto C. Concepcion, et al, G.R. No. 159508, August 29, 2012 — read the decision on LawPhil →