Viewpoint | General Principles for Handling Adjacent Relationship Dispute Cases in Judicial Practice
Published:
2023-12-22
1. legal concepts
Neighboring rights refer to the rights enjoyed by the owner or user of real estate in dealing with adjacent relations. Specifically, as between owners or users of adjacent immovable property, either party has the right to request facilities from other neighboring parties or to accept certain restrictions in order to reasonably exercise its ownership or use rights. The Civil Code stipulates that the neighboring right holders of real estate shall correctly handle the neighboring relations in accordance with the principles of favorable production, convenient life, unity and mutual assistance, fairness and reasonableness, and shall provide necessary convenience in water, drainage, and passage, so as to avoid damage to the neighboring real estate right holders as far as possible.
Types of 2. adjacent rights
Category 1: Adjacent rights for water and drainage
Article 290 of the Civil Code stipulates: "The right holder of a real estate shall provide necessary facilities for the use of water and drainage by neighboring right holders. The use of natural flowing water shall be reasonably distributed among the neighboring right holders of the real estate. The discharge of natural flowing water shall respect the natural flow direction." This article is the provision of the Civil Code on the adjacent right of water and drainage, which means that in the adjacent relationship, the adjacent party shall not intercept or monopolize the natural water without authorization, affecting the normal life of the other party.
Category II: Adjacent Right of Way
Article 291 of the Civil Code stipulates: "if the owner of a real estate right must use his land due to passage, etc., he shall provide the necessary convenience." This article is the stipulation of the Civil Code on the adjacent right of way. The adjacent right of way refers to the right of the land right holder (the surrounded person) to request the right holder of the adjacent land (the surrounding person, the surrounding person) to allow himself to pass within the necessary scope when there is no normal (suitable) contact with the highway (or access road), resulting in the inability to use it normally.
Category 3: Adjacent construction rights, pipeline adjacent rights
Article 292 of the Civil Code stipulates: "Where the right holder of a real estate must use adjacent land or buildings for the construction or repair of buildings and the laying of wires, cables, water pipes, heating and gas pipelines, etc., the right holder of the land or building shall provide the necessary convenience." This article is the provisions of the Civil Code on the right to adjacent construction and the right to adjacent pipelines, which means that the adjacent party may temporarily occupy the land of the adjacent party when building or decorating the house, but cannot affect the production and life of the adjacent party. After use, the site shall be cleaned up in time, the obstruction shall be removed, and the original state shall be restored; if the land right holder suffers losses due to temporary occupation, the occupier shall compensate. The adjacent right of pipeline means that the adjacent party shall not refuse or obstruct the laying of cables, pipelines, erection of wires and other air lines by the adjacent party if it must pass through the underground or above ground of the adjacent party.
Category 4: ventilation and lighting adjacent rights
Article 293 of the Civil Code stipulates: "The construction of buildings shall not violate the relevant national engineering construction standards, and shall not hinder the ventilation, lighting and sunshine of adjacent buildings." The adjacent right of ventilation and lighting means that the adjacent party shall not affect the ventilation and lighting of the adjacent party when constructing and using the house.
Category 5: Environmental protection adjacent rights
Article 294 of the Civil Code: "The owner of real estate rights shall not abandon solid waste in violation of state regulations and discharge harmful substances such as air pollutants, water pollutants, soil pollutants, noise, light radiation, electromagnetic radiation, etc." The adjacent right of environmental protection refers to the right holder of real estate who abandons solid waste in violation of national regulations and discharges harmful substances such as air pollutants, water pollutants, soil pollutants, noise, light radiation, electromagnetic radiation, etc., which causes infringement to the adjacent right holder, The adjacent right holder has the right to claim the right to stop the infringement from the real estate right holder based on the law.
Category 6: Common wall adjacent rights
Article 295 of the Civil Code stipulates: "The right holder of real estate shall not endanger the safety of adjacent real estate by excavating land, constructing buildings, laying pipelines and installing equipment." The right to be adjacent to the wall means that the right holder's house is adjacent to the adjacent person's house and shares the wall, the right holder carries out the original demolition and construction of the house, and the mechanical vibration generated during the demolition operation using an excavator causes damage to the adjacent person's house. Because the right holder must avoid causing damage to the adjacent real estate in the process of demolishing the original house, the act of digging the land and building the building endangers the safety of the adjacent house, and the adjacent right holder has the right to claim the right to stop the infringement and eliminate the danger from the real estate right holder.
The principle of handling the disputes of adjacent relations in 3. judicial practice
1. Handling principles of adjacent relationship between water and drainage
In the relationship of adjacent water use, the use of natural water by adjacent rights holders should be reasonably distributed among the adjacent rights holders of real estate. The real estate right holder of natural flowing water shall respect the law of natural flowing water, shall not monopolize the use of water, shall not change the flow direction, flow rate and flow of water, shall not pollute the water source, etc., and affect the normal production and life of the real estate neighboring right holder; Otherwise, the victim has the right to request removal of obstruction, restoration and compensation for losses. From high to low, the owner or user of the highland has the right to natural drainage (or "right to pass water"), while the owner or user of the lowland has the obligation to tolerate drainage and to allocate water reasonably, I .e. to request the right to give "surplus water. Article 3 of the the People's Republic of China Water Law stipulates that water resources belong to the state. The ownership of water resources shall be exercised by the State Council on behalf of the State. The water in the reservoirs of rural collective economic organizations and the reservoirs built and managed by rural collective economic organizations shall be used by the rural collective economic organizations. Article 21 stipulates that the development and utilization of water resources shall first meet the domestic water needs of urban and rural residents, and take into account the needs of agriculture, industry, ecological environment and shipping.
Reference Cases:(2020) Yun 25 Min Zhong No. 1700, (2015) Min Zi No. 144
In the adjacent drainage relationship, the discharge of natural water by the adjacent right holder shall respect the natural flow direction. The discharge of natural flowing water includes natural discharge and artificial discharge. Natural discharge refers to the natural discharge of natural flowing water from highland to lowland. Artificial discharge refers to the discharge of natural water with the help of artificial facilities. The highland owner or user has an obligation to tolerate the use of land for drying up the encroached land or draining water for household, agricultural and industrial use to the public drainage channel through the adjacent bottom land; but the drainage should be "used within the necessary limits and take appropriate protective measures to drain", causing damage to the lowland owner or user, then it is liable for compensation (compensation).
Reference cases:(2020) Gan Min Shen No. 2155, (2020) Qian Min Shen No. 3249, (2023) Liao 02 Min Zhong No. 6278, (2018) Lu Min Zai No. 371
2, the principle of handling disputes in the adjacent right of way.
In the case of disputes over the right of passage, the real estate right holder should bear the obligation of "tolerance" to the right of passage of the neighbor, but it should also bear only the minimum obligation of "tolerance" and only provide "necessary convenience". The adjacent right of passage can only be a necessary restriction on the right of real estate, not an absolute right, and cannot be equated with the real right. Therefore, the judicial protection of the adjacent right of passage can not be absolute, can not substantially deny or to a considerable extent restrict the real rights enjoyed by the real estate right holders according to law, and can not cause the phenomenon of "anti-customer oriented" of the adjacent right of passage.
The basic conditions for the judgment to support the exercise of the adjacent right of passage are mainly: 1. Must. The exercise of the rights of one party is conditional on the use of the land of the neighboring party. If the neighboring land is not used, it will not be able to exercise its civil rights and affect its normal production and life. 2. Reasonable. When passing through neighboring places, the least damaging place and the most economical route should be chosen. If the traffic can be diverted due to changes in the objective environment, it should be diverted to other more economical routes. 3. Protection. When passing through the neighboring land, we should pay attention to protecting the property or other rights and interests of the neighboring land, and try to avoid causing damage to the neighboring real estate right holders. 4. Indemnification. If losses are caused to the owner of the real property due to passage, etc., compensation shall be paid. It should be insisted that only when these four conditions are fully met can the court decide to support the exercise of the adjacent right of way; when the situation changes, it should make a timely change judgment according to the request of the parties until the judgment rejects the request of the passer.
Reference cases:(2015) Minti Zi No. 222, (2021) Lu 01 Minzong No. 5312, (2022) Lu 01 Minzong No. 1243
3, adjacent ventilation rights, lighting rights disputes in the handling principles.
Article 293 of the Civil Code stipulates that the construction of buildings shall not violate the relevant national engineering construction standards and shall not hinder the ventilation, lighting and sunshine of adjacent buildings. This is the civil code on the adjacent relationship of ventilation, lighting, sunshine rights provisions. According to the provisions of this article, in the system of adjacent relations of buildings in China, the judgment of the obstruction of sunshine, ventilation and lighting is based on the content of the relevant national engineering construction standards. If the construction of a building violates the relevant national standards for engineering construction, it shall be regarded as exceeding the tolerance limit of ordinary people in society, and the victim may claim the exclusion of obstruction and compensation for damages. On the contrary, if it meets the national construction standards, even if it causes a certain degree of obstruction to the ventilation, lighting and sunshine of adjacent buildings, it should be regarded as not exceeding the tolerance limit, and the owner or user of adjacent buildings has the obligation to tolerate. According to the provisions of this article, the standard for judging the obstruction of ventilation, lighting and sunshine is the "national project construction standard". Even if the neighboring right holder does feel uncomfortable and ventilation, lighting and sunshine are indeed affected, as long as they meet the relevant national project Construction standards, neighboring rights holders also have the obligation to tolerate.
Reference Case:(2021) Chuan 08 Min Zhong No. 232
4. Summary
The settlement of disputes over adjacent relations shall be based on the general principles of "favorable production, convenient life, solidarity and mutual assistance, fairness and reasonableness. The handling ideas for general adjacency dispute cases are as follows: if there are laws, administrative regulations and departmental rules that stipulate the boundary of behavior, the existence and degree of "tolerance obligation" can be clarified according to their provisions, thus confirming the legal responsibility of one party; If there is no clear stipulation, it is necessary to inspect the site, analyze the specific situation, and grasp the boundary of rights according to the general principles and local customs, finally, it comes to the conclusion that it is conducive to production and life, solidarity and mutual assistance, fairness and reasonableness.
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