Owner of house near condominium compensated for property damage

Tuesday, 19 December 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By T. Farook Thajudeen

Colombo District Judge Jaiki De Alwis ordered a condominium builder to compensate a homeowner whose house was badly affected due to the construction of a condominium adjoining her building.

The plaintiff Asma Hussain filed this action through her Power of Attorney holder A.N. Makinda Hussain of Francis Road, Colombo 6 against a condominium constructor, claiming that the condominium apartment had hampered the plaintiff’s occupancy in the adjoining house.

The plaintiff had claimed a sum of Rs. 82.3 million as indemnity for the damages caused to the 15 perches of land and the house of the plaintiff.

Senior Counsel Ian Fernando, appearing for the plaintiff with Shalany Herath and instructed by Sumudu Ratnayake of Derrick Fernando Associates, submitted that the construction of the condominium had caused cracks to the walls of the plaintiff’s house and had damaged the house causing it to be unsuitable to live in.

The Counsel also claimed that due to the dilapidated state of the house the plaintiff had been unable to rent out a portion of the house which was an annexe causing an additional loss to the plaintiff.

Counsel Ian Fernando produced a report prepared by Chartered Engineer M.H. Mohamed Ismail stating that the damage to the plaintiff’s house had been caused due the excavation work done on the adjacent premises where multi-storied apartments were built by the defendant.

Judge Jaiki De Alwis requested the defendant to compensate the plaintiff as her rights had been infringed. The defendant paid Rs. 5 million as compensation to the plaintiff.