He builds a wall in his garage in a family building and changes the lock to prevent his sister from accessing it from the common staircase: Justice forces him to tear it down

The Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has confirmed that a woman will have to demolish the wall he built in the garage of a building family and reopen the access door from the common staircase, after her sister sued her because the works prevented her from reaching her own garage directly from inside the property. Justice considers that, although the garage was his property, he could not make modifications that would harm his sister’s rights.

According to the ruling of May 21, 2026, the three sisters lived in an inherited building that consisted of three homes and three garages. Originally, the garages formed a single space without separating walls and had access from the common staircase.

One of the sisters built a wall to separate her garage from the rest, without this affecting the use of the garages, but in 2022 another of the sisters also decided to build a wall to separate her garage from her sister’s and changed the lock on the access door from the common staircase. This caused the affected sister to have to go out into the street to access the garage, although she maintained that it was her right because it was her garage and the other sister had also closed it years before.

For the Court of First Instance number 5 of Manacor, the works harmed the plaintiff sister’s right of access, which is why it sentenced the woman to remove the wall and reopen the door, returning the garages to their previous state. A decision that was later confirmed by the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands.

He couldn’t build a wall in his garage if it would hinder his sister’s access.

The Provincial Court highlights that, although article 7.1 of the Horizontal Property Law (which can be consult this BOE)allows owners to carry out works on their properties, these cannot affect the structure or configuration of the building or harm the rights of another owner. In this case, both the wall and the lock prevented one of the sisters from using the interior access to the garage that was recognized in the deed of horizontal division of the building.

In the ruling that clarifies that the fact that he could access the garage from the street entrance does not justify depriving him of access using the common staircase. In fact, he points out that, even if he had had a copy of the key, he would not have been able to get to his garage because the wall prevented him from doing so.

The woman also alleged that another of her sisters had built a similar wall about 15 years earlier, but the Court clarified that they were not comparable situations, since that work did not harm the access of the other owners, while hers did.

Municipal permits did not justify closing common access

Although the woman had requested the appropriate permits from the City Council to carry out the works, the Court made it clear that the fact of having a license to carry out the works does not mean that it could harm her sister’s rights, since complying with municipal regulations does not mean that a work is legal from a civil point of view.

For all this, Justice confirmed that the woman would have to demolish the dividing wall and reopen the access door from the common staircase, returning the garages to their previous state. However, the ruling (SAP IB 1444/2026) could be appealed in cassation.