Authorization required for the suction boiler

Even if it involves installing an essential device for the resident, this work would be qualified as "manifestly unlawful disturbance" and would result in the obligation to repair it, according to the Court of Cassation.

If the evacuation of a condensing boiler is not done through a chimney, it is done by a "suction cup", that is to say through the exterior wall, which requires a hole with a diameter of eight to twelve centimeters. Through this hole, made in the back of the boiler, the device draws in the air necessary for its operation and rejects its fumes.

Considering that the boiler was necessary and that the hole was only a very minimal damage, an apartment resident had carried out this installation without having been authorized by the assembly of co-owners.

The exterior wall being a common part, owned by the syndicate of co-owners, the latter complained, in court, of deterioration. The summary judge, judge of urgency and obvious matters, however rejected the request to remove the suction cup and restore it. There is no risk to the safety or health of others, he observed, there is no inconvenience for anyone, including visual ones because the suction cup is discreet, and the work has been done in the rules of art.

But the judge was wrong, said the Court of Cassation. These considerations are unnecessary since it involved work carried out without authorization on someone else's property and the restoration should have been ordered.

(Cass. Civil 3, 9.3.2022, E 21-15.797).