Relocating a latrine that causes harm to the neighbours

Question

Question: A house was built 30 years ago; there is a room of a madrasa which has a window through which the smell of the house-owner’s latrine comes in. Now the people of the settlement are forcibly telling the house-owner to remove the latrine, and the house-owner says that the latrine was built thirty years ago. What is the ruling of the Shari‘a in such a case?

Answer

Since that house, and the latrine at that spot in it, were built 30 years ago, and the madrasa has now been built near it, and the madrasa room has two windows on that side, then according to rule and law this person cannot be compelled to move his latrine from this place that he owns to somewhere else.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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