Property management case: housing seepage

Case: A lawsuit was triggered by water seepage in a house. Since August 2006, Bao, the owner of a residential area in Dongxin Road, Shanghai, found that the bathtub in the bathroom in the north of his home was not working well and the corridor outside the bathroom was constantly leaking. Bao then reported to the property management company for repair. After the property management company inspected the site, it was determined that there was a problem with the sewer pipe, and it was suggested that the original decoration company should conduct an inspection. After opening the bathtub, the decoration company found that there was a lot of water under the bathtub and on the floor. In March 2007, Baomou sued the developer, the property management company and the decoration company on the grounds that there were "two wells (waste water well and sewage well) merged into one well" when the developer was building a house, and the property management company never fulfilled the management obligation of the drainage system. Moreover, the hidden works of the bathtub water supply and drainage system installed by the decoration company had major defects, which made a major mistake in the formation of water leakage consequences, and demanded that the three companies be held accountable for repairing the leakage and bear the loss of 50,000 yuan.

Opinions of all parties

Developers believe that "two wells in one well" is approved by the planning department. In addition, "two wells combined into one well" is not the direct cause of housing seepage, and developers should not bear legal responsibility. However, the property management company believes that according to the State Council's Property Management Regulations and the contract between the property management company and the community industry committee, the property management company only manages the public parts and facilities of the community, and the plaintiff's water seepage part belongs to its indoor self-use part, so the property management company should not bear legal responsibility for the water seepage of its self-use part caused by decoration problems. The decoration company believes that the warranty period of decoration is one year, and the warranty period of renovation contract agreed by both parties is one year. In this case, the owner found that the toilet was leaking more than five years from the date of completion and acceptance of the renovation. In addition, renovation contract did not stipulate that the decoration company must waterproof the plaintiff's decoration, so the decoration company should not undertake the warranty obligation.

court decision

In this case, according to the report of the quality inspection department, the main reason for Bao's water seepage is that "kitchen and bathroom domestic garbage is deposited at the drain pipe of the main bathroom, causing blockage and failing to find and dredge it in time. Domestic wastewater overflows from the bathtub drain pipe that is not completely connected, accumulates in the sink at the lower part of the bathtub, and penetrates into the wooden floor overhead floor of the room through the cement mortar layer on the main bathroom floor and the main bathroom with insufficient waterproof measures. " And if the bathtub drainage connection port is completely connected, even if the drainage pipe is blocked, the result is that the water in the bathtub cannot be discharged and will not be deposited in the sink under the bathtub; If the waterproof measures under the bathroom threshold are in place, the water in the sink will not penetrate into the room through the bathroom. The above problems were caused by the decoration project, so the court held that the decoration company should bear the responsibility for the above losses. There is no causal relationship between the causes of water seepage and whether the property management company dredges the outdoor drainage system, and whether the developer has "two wells in one well" has no causal relationship with the plaintiff's loss. Therefore, the court ordered the decoration company to bear a loss of more than 50,000 yuan according to the loss assessment report.

Lawyer analysis

First, after the warranty period, can the decoration company not bear legal responsibility?

According to the decoration company, according to the relevant regulations, the warranty period of decoration inspection% is one year, and the renovation contract signed by both parties also stipulates that the warranty period is one year. Bao decided that the leakage of the bathroom had been more than five years since the date of completion and acceptance, so the decoration company should not bear the warranty obligation and compensation liability. On the other hand, the court held that the case was a dispute over damages and did not apply to the warranty period. The author is inclined to the court's point of view. Because according to the report of the quality inspection department, there are two reasons for water seepage: first, the connection between the bathtub downspout and the drainage is incomplete; Second, the waterproof measures under the bathroom threshold are not in place. These two points do not meet the requirements of decoration specifications, or such decoration products are unqualified. Therefore, according to Article 122 of the General Principles of Civil Law: "Producers and sellers of products shall bear civil liability according to law if they cause property or personal injury to others due to unqualified products", the court ruled that the decoration unit shall bear civil liability. In another sense, the warranty responsibility is for qualified products, not for unqualified products, so the defense reason of the decoration company has not been accepted by the court.

Two, the common situation of dealing with the responsibility of housing leakage in judicial practice

In judicial practice, house water leakage is a common civil case, and the court's handling results are not the same. Generally speaking, the court judges the corresponding civil liability according to the cause of water leakage. Generally speaking, it can be divided into four situations: first, the house leaks due to the owner's own reasons. For example, in some cities in the north, due to improper use of owner-made heating, water pipes are frozen and cracked; Or the house leaks caused by the decoration of the adjacent owners, mainly because the upstairs owners destroyed the waterproof layer of the bathroom, or used a lot of tap water in the non-waterproof room, which led to water leakage to the downstairs, and some owners diverted the drainage pipe without authorization, resulting in improper drainage. The second reason is the decoration company. Like this case, the decoration company did not carry out the construction according to the technical specifications of the decoration. In addition, there are unqualified materials used and quality problems during the warranty period; Third, the developer's reasons, mainly in the five-year waterproof warranty period of housing leakage; Fourth, property management companies, such as property management companies, do not regularly dredge and maintain the drainage pipes in the community.

Thirdly, the enlightenment to owners, property management companies and decoration companies.

As a common civil dispute, owners should safeguard their legitimate rights and interests according to law. In this case, Bao did not file a lawsuit based on renovation contract, but filed a lawsuit as damages, which is the embodiment of his legal rights protection and attention to litigation skills. Therefore, as the owner, when this happens, we should make a preliminary judgment on the cause of water leakage, and then determine how to sue according to the specific situation to safeguard our rights and interests. For property management companies, as managers of public parts and equipment in residential areas, they should perform their management duties in strict accordance with the provisions of the property management service contract. In the court of this case, on the one hand, the property management company explained its management of public * * * parts and public * * * equipment and facilities in the community, on the other hand, it also showed its records of regular dredging of drainage pipes, indicating that this case does not belong to the leakage of public * * * parts, so the responsibility is not in the property management company, which has fulfilled its contractual obligations and should not bear the responsibility. For decoration companies, it is necessary to carry out construction in strict accordance with the specifications, use qualified decoration materials and strictly abide by the warranty period. It is particularly important to note that the warranty period is only for qualified decoration products, but in this case, the decoration result itself does not meet the technical specifications, so the warranty period cannot be applied.