He closes his garage space with a wall and leaves the neighbor without space to get out of the car: Justice forces him to demolish it for altering common areas without permission from the community

The Provincial Court of Almería has confirmed that the owners of a garage space They will have to demolish the wall and the door with which they completely closed their garage space and return it to its original state. And, although they defended that the work had been carried out within the limits of their property, the Court considered that they could not convert an open square into a closed space on their own because the work affected the entire garage and harmed the next-door neighbor.

According to the ruling of January 20, 2026, the space was in the community garage, which was an open space in which the parking spaces were delimited with lines on the ground. The owners built a brick wall and placed a door, but they did so without asking the community for authorization or having previously communicated the work.

The community of neighbors ended up suing them to order the demolition of the enclosure, something that was confirmed by the Court of First Instance and later by the Provincial Court, despite the fact that the owners claimed that the square was a private element, that the work did not harm the common areas and that there were other enclosures in the residential complex that the community had tolerated.

Being inside their plaza did not allow them to close it without permission.

Although article 7 of the Horizontal Property Law (which can be consult in this BOE) allows owners to make modifications to their homes, premises or private elements, these cannot alter the security of the building, its structure, its configuration or the rights of other owners. Furthermore, when the work affects common elements, it cannot be carried out unilaterally.

In this case, although the wall was built within the lines of the square itself, Justice considers that closing it, when it was originally part of an open garage, changes the configuration of the entire floor, since it transformed an open space into a compartmentalized one.

The Court itself pointed out in the ruling that a very similar case had already been resolved in 2021 and that different Provincial Courts have been maintaining the criterion that subsequently closing a parking space that was originally open represents a modification that affects the common elements and requires the unanimous consent of the owners’ meeting.

Therefore, it was not enough for the wall to be built within the limits of the square. Being part of a building subject to the horizontal property regime, the owners also had to respect the limits imposed by the community and the rest of the common elements.

The wall prevented the neighbor from using his square normally

Another reason that the Court took into account was the damage caused to the owner of the adjacent plaza. He stated that, before the wall was raised, he could park and open the car door taking advantage of the open space that existed between the spaces, but after the closure, although he could park without problems, he did have problems opening the car door and being able to get in or out of it.

Furthermore, the expert evidence provided by the community indicated that the enclosure also affected the ventilation, the smoke detector and the community electrical installation.

Regarding the enclosures that the owners mentioned, the ruling made it clear that they were not comparable, since there were other enclosures in private elements of the community, but they were mainly terraces, storage rooms or garages that had been built closed from the beginning.

Therefore, it was confirmed that they had to demolish the wall and return the parking space to its original state; although the sentence (SAP_AL_149_2026) was not final and could be appealed in cassation.