I am involved in a property development which involves demolishing an existing house and also my garage that was on the property boundary. In pulling down the garage it has been revealed that the neighbour’s succah flimsy timber wall, was bolted (not allowed under the building regulations) on to my garage wall and when my wall and his flimsy wall (both fully within my title boundary) was demolished, this also took his timber side succah wall with it. Additionally his sliding rood structure was running on to my garage wall by approx 200mm and is now hanging in the air.
When I bought the property I never knew this as it can’t be seen unless you get on to the garage roof.
The succah has been like that for 20 odd years and the goy who I bought the house from may have given permission for this to be done (although illegal under the building regulations for this to be done)
Few questions;
1) Who has to rebuild the neighbors wall that has been removed (it was sitting in my property)? 2) What’s the halacha with the 200mm succah roof protrusion now sticking in to my property since my garage has been demolished – can I ask him to rebuild his succah roof so it doesn’t protrude into my property anymore?
Yasher Koch
Yanki
Answer:
The answer to this will depend on whether the neighbor had permission to place the Sukkah wall as described or not.
If he had permission, then you are liable for the damage caused. Although the damage was caused inadvertently, and you can in principle blame the seller who should have told you about the Sukkah, this doesn’t take away from your liability for directly damaging the Sukkah. If he was there without permission, then you won’t be liable for the damage, and it is the neighbor’s fault for placing a Sukkah in the location without permission.
Concerning the protrusion into your property, the neighbor does not have the right to protrude into you property, and he must take care of the issue himself.
In general, it is of course worthwhile to find an amicable and agreed solution to the problem, especially bearing in mind that you will be neighbors.
Best wishes.
