My neighbour’s New Year fireworks terrify my cats – can I force them to stop? DEAN DUNHAM replies

My neighbors like to set off fireworks, but it scares my two cats.

They do this every Bonfire Night, and if past years are anything to go by, they’ll be lighting them up on New Year’s Eve as well.

My cats will be terrified all evening and will desperately try to get out of the house and escape.

I told the neighbors my cats don’t like it, but they don’t seem to care.

Is there anything I can do about this?

TR, via e-mail.

Dean Dunham replies: Unfortunately, the law doesn’t help much when it comes to neighbors setting off fireworks in their yards.

In fact, a law known as the Fireworks Regulations 2004 specifically allows private individuals to set off fireworks at home before 11pm.

This restriction is relaxed until midnight on Bonfire Night and 1am on New Year’s Day. So if your neighbors stick to these times, they’re not breaking the law.

However, if they allow it after these hours or if they act carelessly (for example, they point fireworks at your property or behave in ways that endanger your safety), you can report it to your municipality’s environmental health unit or even the police.

The latter can carry a fine of up to £5,000 or imprisonment for abuse.

But if you choose this path, you will need proof; This usually means photos or videos that clearly show reckless behavior. If time is the issue, you will need to prove when the fireworks were set off.

My top advice when it comes to problems with neighbors is to avoid any negativity at all costs. Even if your first conversation doesn’t work, I encourage you to try again and see if a compromise can be reached.

Finally, some people may tell you to report this to the local authorities as a ‘legal nuisance’.

Such a complaint will rarely go anywhere, as local authorities tend to act on these complaints only when the ‘nuisance’ continues, rather than for a night or two as here.

Insurer will not help with lost passport

We booked a holiday to Iceland. On the day of our flight, my husband, who has dementia, couldn’t remember where he left his passport.

We had to cancel the trip but still couldn’t find the passport. We had travel insurance under which I declared that I had dementia, but the insurance company refused to pay the compensation even though I received a letter from my husband’s doctor.

The insurer says it will only pay if your passport is stolen. Is this fair?

IS, Scotland.

Dean Dunham replies: Most policies cover cancellation if you are unable to travel due to illness, injury or loss of documentation due to theft, but will not usually cover you if you ‘lost’ or ‘misplaced’ something.

Therefore, it does not appear that the insurer did anything wrong.

However, you should check the terms and conditions or ask the insurance company to send you the cancellation section to ensure that ‘lost’ documents are not covered.

However, there is a potential argument you can make here. Since you declared your husband had dementia and the insurance company accepted the policy, it was their duty to consider how his condition might affect his ability to travel.

So, as is clear here, if they had intended to exclude cover for dementia-related events they should have made this clear in writing when they accepted your application.

This then potentially becomes a ‘key term’ of the contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA). The law states that essential terms must be made clear before signing a contract, and if this does not happen, they cannot be enforced.

I would recommend you formally appeal the decision, stating that your husband’s declared medical condition, dementia, directly contributed to the loss and that the insurer’s reasoning amounted to disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 and a breach under the CRA.

If they still refuse, take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which has a track record of siding with consumers in similar situations. This is a new argument that may not work, but it’s worth a try.

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