Short answer. Under Article 682 of the Civil Code, every building and piece of land carries a legal easement that prohibits the owner or possessor from committing nuisance through noise, jarring, offensive odor, smoke, heat, dust, water, glare, and other similar causes. This easement runs with the property and cannot be bargained away.
What the law says
Every building or piece of land is subject to the easement which prohibits the proprietor or possessor from committing nuisance through noise, jarring, offensive odor, smoke, heat, dust, water, glare and other causes.
Civil Code, Article 682 — Easement Against Nuisance. Read the full provision →
A universal easement, not a personal right
Article 682 of the Civil Code frames the prohibition on nuisance as an easement — a real right that runs with the property. Every building and piece of land, by operation of law, is burdened with this easement regardless of who owns it or what they agreed to. The easement prohibits the proprietor or possessor from committing nuisance — covering not just owners but also tenants, occupants, and anyone else in control of the premises. No registration is required and no agreement needs to have been made; the burden exists automatically.
The specific causes Article 682 names
Article 682 enumerates eight specific types of nuisance: noise, jarring, offensive odor, smoke, heat, dust, water, and glare. Each addresses a distinct way that the use of one property can impose unwanted intrusion on the sensory experience of neighbors. Noise and jarring from machinery or construction, odors from industrial or domestic activities, smoke from burning, excessive heat, dust from grinding or demolition, water directed or channeled onto neighboring land, and glare from lighting — all of these fall squarely within the article's scope.
The catch-all 'and other causes'
Article 682 does not limit the easement to the eight named causes. The phrase and other causes extends the prohibition to anything of a comparable nature — intrusions that affect neighbors in the same way that noise, odor, or heat do. This open-ended language means new or unusual forms of nuisance — vibration from heavy equipment, electromagnetic interference, chemical emissions not listed in 1950 — can fall within the easement as long as they impose the same kind of unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of neighboring property.
What the easement does not do
Article 682 prohibits nuisance, not all inconvenience. Not every odor, sound, or discharge of dust from normal activity constitutes a violation. The standard is whether the interference is unreasonable in the context of the neighborhood and the ordinary use of the property. Light cooking smells, normal foot traffic noise, and reasonable construction activity in a residential area are not the kind of nuisance Article 682 targets. The law aims at conduct that goes beyond ordinary coexistence — the kind of intrusion that substantially and unreasonably interferes with a neighbor's enjoyment of their property.