Who decides whether the entrance door opens inwards or outwards?

As the saying goes, \”A distant relative is not as good as a close neighbor\”

However, many owners change the original orientation of the entrance door during decoration for the sake of beauty or convenience

/p>

Resulting in narrow public passages

Affecting the traffic safety of neighbors

Conflicts between neighbors lead to lawsuits

Inside or outside opening

Can the owner change the direction of the entrance door at will?

Is this behavior legal?

Let’s take a look at today’s case

Case details

Huang and Chen are neighbors in a certain community. Chen When renovating the house, the inward-opening entrance door originally designed and installed by the developer was changed to an outward-opening one, and the width of the door was expanded.

In April 2022, the property management company of the community issued a rectification notice to Chen, requiring Chen to make rectifications. However, Chen did not make rectifications after receiving it.

Neighbor Huang believes that when Chen’s entrance door opens outward, it is easy to collide with his own entrance door, affecting traffic, and posing certain fire safety risks. He negotiated with Chen many times, hoping that Chen would restore the direction of the entrance door to its original state, but Chen ignored it, so Huang filed a lawsuit in court.

Chen argued that his entrance door belonged to the exclusive scope of his house and did not encroach on the public area. Similar situations also exist on other floors in the community. Both adjacent parties are getting along well, and the property management company has no objection to this. Judging from the scene, Huang can open the door normally, and Chen\’s door is equipped with a device that restricts the opening. The opening of Chen\’s door does not affect Huang\’s normal access. The narrow corridor was designed by the developer, and the root cause lies with the developer, not Chen. As a neighbor, Huang should also be considerate of Chen\’s actual needs.

Court Hearing

During the trial, the People’s Court of Jin’an District, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province (hereinafter referred to as Jin’an Court) inspected the house site and found that Huang and Chen share a passageway. Their doors are diagonally opposite to each other. Huang\’s house is on the inside and Chen\’s house is on the outside. Huang must go through Chen\’s door to enter and exit. The passage shared by the two families is 117cm wide, Huang\’s door is 87cm wide, and Chen\’s door is 101cm wide with the door frame protruding outward. After Chen\’s entrance door was opened vertically, only about 15.8cm remained in the aisle. There would be a collision when both parties opened the door at the same time. Chen installed a chain above his door to limit the opening of the door. The chain needs to be fastened manually to limit the opening angle of the door.

The Jin\’an Court held after trial that adjacent rights holders of real estate should correctly handle adjacent relationships in accordance with the principles of conducive production, convenient life, solidarity and mutual assistance, and fairness and reasonableness, and cause obstruction to adjacent parties. The infringement should be stopped and obstacles removed.

In this case, Huang and Chen were neighbors. Chen modified the entrance door of his house without authorization, knowing that the entrance door planned, designed and installed by the developer opened from the inside. To open outward and expand the width of the door body. AlthoughIt argued that it was equipped with a limited opening chain, but the chain needed to be fastened manually, and there might be situations where the chain was forgotten or not fastened in time when there was danger. Moreover, the entrance door occupies most of the space of the public passage when it is opened. When it is opened at 90 degrees, the passage is only 15.8cm, which is not only difficult to pass, but also creates a blind spot behind the door, making it difficult for Huang to enter and exit the home. Emergency escapes, etc. cause certain obstacles. Therefore, Huang asked Chen to restore the opening direction of the entrance door to inward opening according to the original design specifications. The reason was legitimate and well-founded in law and should be supported.

In accordance with Article 288 of the Civil Code of the People\’s Republic of China, the Jin\’an Court ruled that Chen should restore the entrance door of the house involved in the case within ten days from the date of the judgment taking effect. Open the door inside.

The judge said

When exercising their rights, house owners or users should do so in a manner that does not harm the legitimate rights and interests of other neighbors. If the exercise of rights causes harm to the person or property of a neighbor, the neighbor has the right to demand that the infringement be stopped, the danger eliminated, and the loss compensated. When dealing with neighboring relations, neighboring parties should adhere to the principles of benefiting production, facilitating life, solidarity and mutual assistance, fairness and reasonableness, understand each other, and negotiate solutions. If negotiation fails, you may request the People\’s Court to resolve the matter in accordance with the law.

This case is a neighbor dispute caused by the change of the direction of the entrance door of the house. Although the law does not restrict the opening direction of residential entrance doors, Article 5.8.5 of the national standard \”Residential Design Code\” clearly stipulates: \”Doors that open outwards should not hinder public transportation and the opening of adjacent doors.\” Therefore, Unless there are special circumstances in which the entrance door does not meet the design specifications and must be corrected, in principle, the owner cannot change the orientation without authorization, otherwise it will easily lead to neighborhood disputes and safety hazards.

We would like to remind the general public that everyone has the right to pursue a comfortable life, but there are limits to the exercise of this freedom and rights. You should not arbitrarily exceed the boundaries of rights to perform civil acts, otherwise there will be violations and violations. There is even a risk of prosecution. Especially in daily neighborly relationships, we should maintain a harmonious relationship of mutual help and create a harmonious neighborhood atmosphere, which is conducive to further promoting the core values ​​of socialism and the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.

Comprehensive: Jin\’an Intermediate People\’s Court, Fujian High Court, Guangxi High Court

Source: Shandong High Court