In the event of negligence or lack of reaction from the syndicate, co-owners may be condemned to repair the damage caused to third parties by only one of them, judged the Court of Cassation.
It is indeed up to the syndicate of co-owners, that is to say their community, to act in good time if one of its members carries out work that harms the neighborhood, explained the judges of the third civil chamber of the Court of Cassation in a judgment dated April 21, 2022.
Negligence of the syndic of co-ownership
A syndicate, sentenced to compensate a neighbor because one of the co-owners had made alone, without authorization, windows creating unauthorized views of the neighboring building, challenged its conviction. He declared that, according to the law of 1965 which organizes life in co-ownership, he was liable vis–vis third parties only for possible defects in the construction or lack of maintenance of the common parts, which was not the case this time.
The neighboring owner reproached him for not having given formal notice to the perpetrator to restore the wall: it was negligence on his part and that had contributed to creating his damage.
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The Court of Cassation followed this argument. The lack of reaction was a fault of the syndicate of co-owners in the conservation of the building and the administration of the common areas, and it contributed to the realization of the abnormal neighborhood disturbance, she said. It is therefore up to all the co-owners, collectively, to assume the compensation of this neighbour.
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