Action concerning tort liability. Ordering the owner of the neighbouring building to perform certain consolidation works. Encumbrances to ensure good neighbourhood

DREPT CIVIL ŞI DREPT PROCESUAL CIVIL

Abstract

The owner of a building in imminent danger to collapse shall be liable for breaching the obligation to secure the respective building. The owner’s liability for the risk of demolition of the building shall represent an encumbrance of the estate, being an objective liability, independent of the idea of fault, arising from the obligation of warranty and security regarding the construction and maintenance of a building. In such a situation, it is not strictly necessary for the activation of the liability governed by the provisions of Article 1.378 of the Civil Code, in the context of the general regime of the rights and obligations of a diligent owner, that the building had actually been ruined, since the proof of existence of a state of imminent danger and of a major risk of collapse caused by the lack of its maintenance, likely to affect the rights and interests of others would have been sufficient.  Moreover, taking into consideration that the provisions of Article 603 of the Civil Code establish encumbrances pertaining to the relationship of good neighbourhood, the breach of those obligations affecting the normal exercise of the ownership right over the neighbouring building entails the tort civil liability of the owner of the building representing a danger for neighbourhood, so it is required to take certain security actions likely to lead to the removal of the risk of causing future sinkholes determined by the lack of maintenance and the poor condition of the building. Thus, the operation of actual consolidation of the building shall represent a form of reparation in kind of the damage caused to the owner of the neighbouring building, who is unable to enforce the rights over his own asset.