A building owner may not allow a tower crane to slew over a neighboring property without prior notice. This was decided by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Stuttgart (AZ: 4 U 74/22). In this case, two future neighbors in the district of Ludwigsburg were in dispute. The building owner had erected a tower crane on the property boundary for the construction of two semi-detached houses and four garages.
However, the 28-meter boom of the tower crane now swung over the property of its neighbor (the plaintiff) several times, unannounced, with and without a load. On one occasion, the tower crane got caught on the overhead line with heavy precast concrete parts. This not only caused the top floor of the neighbor's house to shake, but also resulted in a power failure.
The neighbor then brought an action before the Heilbronn Regional Court for immediate injunctive relief to prevent the tower crane from slewing over his property. The regional court affirmed a claim for injunctive relief, but only in the case of an overswing with loads. The plaintiff appealed against this. He also did not want the tower crane to swing over his property again without loads. The Higher Regional Court ruled in his favor, also because the building owner had not given two weeks' notice of the slewing of the tower crane, as required.
Source: oberlandesgericht-stuttgart.justiz-bw.de/4 U 74/22
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