My neighbour is having work done on his house

My neighbour, who is having work done on his house, knocked down part of our half wall with a machine. Am I obliged to pay half the cost of the repair?

First of all, it should be noted that the law stipulates that, whenever the buildings are the same, the dividing wall is presumed to be common. If the buildings are not equal, the wall is presumed to be common up to the height of the lower building.

Similarly, walls on rustic land (e.g. farmland) or between courtyards and backyards are also presumed to be common. This is only not the case when there are signs that exclude communion.

It should also be added that if the wall supports a building on one side only, it is presumed to belong to the owner of the building.

So much for repairing the wall:

The rule, which includes exceptions, is that the repair or reconstruction of the common wall or wall is carried out at the expense of the consorts, in proportion to their shares, and if the wall is simply a fence, the expense is divided equally.

It should be noted, however, that if the wall collapses as a result of an event from which only one of the consorts benefits, only the beneficiary is obliged to rebuild or repair it. It should be emphasised, however, that this rule only applies when the need to rebuild the wall arises from normal ruin or deterioration, and not from destruction caused by one of the consorts.

Thus, whenever the event that caused the wall to collapse was caused (culpably or negligently) by one of the parties, that party can be held civilly liable for the damage caused, and it is up to that party to repair it, without prejudice to the fact that it can be held liable for other damage caused by the collapse.

In this case, you should not be obliged to pay any money for the repair of the wall.