The owner sued the developer for too much noise from the external unit of the air conditioner, and the court: the whole building will be relocated together

Modern Express News (reporter Liu Yao) recently, the reporter of Modern Express learned from the people's Court of Gulou District, Nanjing that the owner sued the developer for the noise problem of the external unit of the air conditioner. A female business owner sued the court because the external air conditioner downstairs was placed outside her window and the sound of the machine was too loud in summer, affecting her rest. The judge who undertook the investigation found that there were problems with the placement of air conditioners in the whole building. In addition to the noise, anyone who wants to repair the air conditioner has to go to the upstairs neighbor's house, which is prone to neighborhood contradictions. Recently, after the Gulou court made a judgment, the real estate developer has uniformly adjusted the external machine of the whole building to the lower part of the second bedroom.

In 2016, Ms. Xia purchased a serviced apartment from a real estate development company. After receiving the house in 2019, she moved in.

In summer, Ms. Xia can hear the "buzzing" sound of the air conditioner outside the window every night. She wants to turn off the air conditioner, but it's too hot to sleep. If she doesn't turn it off, she can't sleep. She tried to turn up the temperature, but the sound was still loud. Ms. Xia looked carefully and found that the external air conditioner outside the window belongs to the downstairs residents. Her external air conditioner is close to the upstairs window. No wonder she adjusted the air conditioner, but it is still very noisy.

In order to solve the problem of air-conditioning noise, Ms. Xia sued the real estate development company to the Gulou court and asked to move all external air-conditioning units to the window of the secondary bedroom.

The host judge Zhu Weiping visited the site and found that the external air conditioners of the whole building are placed in the same way. As long as the air conditioner is turned on downstairs, the noise of the external air conditioner will affect the residents on the upper floor. In addition, if the external air conditioner of which house needs maintenance, it must also enter the upper floor household's home.

The real estate designer said that the real estate is a hotel apartment, which is a public building in nature, and there are no special design provisions for the external machine platform. The real estate development company said that they put the external air conditioner in this way because of aesthetic considerations and did not take into account the factors of noise affecting the neighborhood. The design of the house complies with relevant national standards, and the real estate developers also build it in strict accordance with the design, which is not inappropriate.

The reporter of Modern Express learned that during the trial of the case, another resident of the same building also came to the court for litigation on the same problem. Zhu Weiping investigated and found that there were more than 20 households with the same problem.

After repeated research and considering the actual interests of the masses, it was finally decided to add 22 neighboring households with interests as the third party of the case. While soliciting the opinions of the residents, Zhu Weiping and the clerk also communicated with the real estate development company and organized consultations between the two sides.

After hearing, the Gulou court held that the placement of the external units of the central air conditioner of Ms. Xia and the third person (other 22 affected households) is inappropriate, which will affect the life of the residents upstairs when in use, cause inconvenience in their own maintenance, and easily lead to contradictions between neighbors. Air conditioning installation belongs to the category of decoration. Although there is no agreement in the contract, it should meet the quality standards stipulated by law. According to the code for the installation of air conditioners for household and similar purposes and residential design standards, the installation position of the outdoor unit of the central air conditioner shall be convenient for maintenance. Therefore, a real estate development company did not consider the convenience of air conditioning use and maintenance in the decoration process, which has defects and should bear legal responsibility.

Finally, the Gulou court ruled that a real estate development company would move the external air conditioners of the relevant owners of a community to the external machine platform under the secondary windows of their houses. In the process of relocation, all owners shall assist each other.

The reporter of Modern Express learned that at present, the real estate development company has consciously and actively adjusted the external units of residents' air conditioners.

Zhu Weiping said that from the evidence of this case, the building built by the developer met the requirements of the design drawings and did not violate the provisions of the commercial housing pre-sale contract. The developer has fulfilled its contractual obligations and there is no breach of contract. However, from the facts of the case, the placement of the external unit of the air conditioner does affect the life of the owner when in use, and the inconvenience of maintenance is also easy to cause neighborhood disputes. The judgment of a case should proceed from reality and take the effective resolution of contradictions as the fundamental purpose. The judgment in this case embodies this idea.