The owner tampered with the entrance door and affected the neighbor\’s access

The owner made the entrance door wider and taller without authorization, and changed it from inward opening to outward opening, which affected the neighbor\’s family\’s access. Recently, the Intermediate People\’s Court of Hefei City, Anhui Province issued a second-instance judgment on this neighboring rights dispute case, upholding the first-instance judgment of the Baohe District People\’s Court of Hefei City and ordering the defendant Li to restore the entrance door to its original state.

Liu and Li purchased houses on the 6th floor of Building 5 in a community in Hefei City in 2010 and lived next to each other. In September 2023, Li failed to report to the community property company, and without Liu\’s consent, he widened and increased the height of his entrance door, and at the same time changed the entrance door from inward opening to outward opening.

Because the two houses are adjacent to each other, when Li’s renovated entrance door was fully opened, the exit of Liu’s house was blocked. Liu\’s family members communicated and tried to dissuade Li\’s family members to no avail. Later, Liu reported the situation to the property management company and the community committee. He admitted that there were young children and elderly people at home, and the safety and fire hazards were greater after the door was blocked. At the end of September of the same year, the property management company sent a rectification letter to Li, requiring him to rectify the entrance door as soon as possible, but Li ignored it. Afterwards, the neighborhood committee and the property management company organized and coordinated many times to no avail. Liu then brought a lawsuit to the court, requesting that the defendant Li be ordered to immediately stop the infringement of unauthorized modification of the door that caused damage to himself, restore the size of the entrance door to the size before the modification, and change it back to the inside opening, and at the same time bear the consequences of the adjustment caused by his rights protection. filing fees and litigation fees.

After the trial, the court held that Article 288 of the Civil Code stipulates that neighboring rights holders of real estate should correctly handle neighboring relationships in accordance with the principles of conducive to production, convenient life, solidarity and mutual assistance, and fairness and reasonableness. . Article 272 stipulates that owners have the right to possess, use, benefit from and dispose of the exclusive parts of their buildings. The owner shall not endanger the safety of the building or damage the legitimate rights and interests of other owners when exercising their rights. Article 5.8.5 of the Ministry of Construction\’s \”Residential Design Code\” (GB50096-2011) stipulates that outward-opening doors should not hinder public transportation and the opening of adjacent doors. In this case, when Li\’s modified entrance door was fully open, it almost completely blocked the entry door of Liu\’s family, which affected the normal access of Liu\’s family and also caused certain safety hazards.

To sum up, the court held that Li’s behavior of changing the direction and size of the entrance door without authorization was improper and should be restored to its original state. The plaintiff, despite the failure of multi-party coordination, incurred reasonable expenditures in obtaining the defendant\’s identity information for the purpose of litigation, and has provided evidence, which should be supported.

Therefore, the court of first instance ruled that the defendant Li would restore the entrance door to its original state, pay the plaintiff Liu the adjustment fee, and bear the litigation costs. Li was dissatisfied and appealed. After hearing the case, the Hefei Intermediate People\’s Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

The judge reminded

Being kind and kind to neighbors is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, and one must abide by public ethics when dealing with neighbors. Everyone has the right to pursue a comfortable life, but the exercise of rights also has boundaries. The boundaries of rights should not be exceeded at will, and the legitimate rights and interests of other people should not be harmed. Neighbors should carry forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation in their daily lives, set a good example for their children, and create a good and harmonious family tradition.

Reporter Zhou Ruiping Correspondent Yu Shengyun

Reprinted from: People\’s Court Newspaper

Source: People\’s Daily Online