They install windows on a adjoining wall, their neighbor makes them pay dearly

Monsieur and Mrs. Z. installed windows on a adjoining wall without feeling the need to collect a clear consent from their neighbor, he did not seem to be opposed to this work. A serious mistake, with regard to the law.

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Mr. and Mrs. Z. did not think of badly when they renovated one of the walls of their apartment. This included an opening made of translucent days, these glasses which let the light pass without allowing to distinguish what is on the other side. For the sake of modernization, the Z. replace translucent days by windows Sliding and, by nature, transparent. But their neighbor, Monsieur B., takes shade because this opening, on a adjoining wall of a small courtyard of which he has private enjoyment, overlooks his apartment, located on the ground floor of the condominium, and on this small courtyard. Impossible, now, quietly sip his coffee on his garden table without feeling permanently watched by the Z.! His anger is all the stronger since he claims to have discovered the new windows once the work is carried out.

Neither one nor two, Mr. B., believing that these new windows on the adjoining wall affects his intimacy, assigns his neighbors to justicein order to obtain that they replace “Light glasses of joinery by mesh iron glasses, exterior frames by a fixed chassis work and sleeping glasses and that they compensate it from its damage to enjoyment”, up to 5,000 euroswe read in a decision of the Court of Cassation of April 10, 2025, spotted by the law firm Adonis. Mr. and Mrs. Z. defend themselves by stressing that these modifications have not changed the location or the dimensions of the preexisting opening, and that they had orally informed their neighbor of their intention to carry out this work.

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Without clear consent from the neighbor, no work on a adjoining wall

At first instance, the judges prove them right, believing that the new windows only replace an existing opening and that their implementation has given rise to any modification of volume or grip. Without forgetting that their neighbor, informed of the work, did not formally oppose their realization. It was to count without the determination of Mr. B., who was provided in a cassation. In its decision of April 10, the Court broke that of the trial judges, “Recalling An essential “essential real estate law : no opening, even with sleeping glass (translucent but not transparent) or even replacing an existing opening, cannot be created or modified in a adjoining wall without the express consent of the neighbor ”decrypts Adonis.

For the Court of Cassation, the simple fact of having informed the neighbor, without collecting his formal assent, is not enough. And “The neighbor’s silence can in no case be interpreted as an agreement” from him. In other words, “Only clear, express and unresolved consent allows you to intervene legally on a adjoining wall ». The couple Z. should therefore have asked Mr. B. a written and signed agreement Before embarking on the renovation of the wall. The Z. will therefore be for 5,000 euros in compensation, weighed down by the cost of the new works necessary in order to allow Mr. B. to find the intimacy of his interior courtyard.