Sukkah for Sukkot in the shared courtyard of the building, against the three-year chazakah / land chazakah.

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Question

Introduction to practical halachic questions: "Three-year chazakah," meaning "land chazakah," is a halacha that establishes real estate in the hands of one who has held it for 3 consecutive years. The chazakah allows defense against a claim by previous owners. The holder of the property must prove his possession through witnesses, and the challenger of ownership can break the chazakah through a protest made before the end of the 3 years. The chazakah has no power without a claim of purchase, gift, or inheritance. Another introduction to 3 practical halachic questions: On a street in a city in Israel, there is a building with 4 floors and 13 apartments. According to the land registry, there is a shared courtyard for all the tenants of this building. In this courtyard, there is space for 4 sukkahs of average family size. This means that it is necessary to build 1 large sukkah together if they want to provide a sukkah for all the tenants of this building. It is impossible for each apartment to have its own private sukkah in this courtyard. But: 1] More than 3 years ago, a tenant on the second floor of this building built a metal bridge, which is a private access path from his apartment on the second floor, over a quarter of the courtyard closest to his apartment. And on the quarter of the courtyard farther from his apartment, he built a private sukkah only for his own apartment. Thus, he occupies half of the entire courtyard, all year round, including during the entire Sukkot holiday. When asked what about providing sukkah space for the other 12 out of 13 apartments in the building, he said he left them half of the courtyard space. And that in the past they showed no interest in building a sukkah. Additionally, he claims that there were trees in this courtyard, and only he uprooted them, and there was land with elevations and pits, and only he leveled it at his own time, expense, and effort. Which is true for several reasons: a] All the tenants of this building admit that there were several wicked and violent tenants in this building. And that some of them are still in this building to this day. So any single woman living alone in an apartment logically chose the approach of being as little as possible in the shared area for all tenants, lest one of the violent tenants come and harm her or steal her entire sukkah. As it is written in the Mishneh Torah of the Rambam, Sefer Mishpatim, Laws of Claimant and Respondent, Chapter 14, Halacha 10: "A fugitive who fled due to a life-threatening danger, such as when the king sought to kill him, does not lose his property, even if the holder ate for several years and claimed he bought it, his eating is not proof, and we do not say to the owner of the field, 'Why did you not protest?!'. Because he is occupied with his life. But a fugitive due to money is like any other person, and if he did not protest, he loses his property.". The question is whether this is the practical halacha? What is the law regarding fear of physical harm that is not life-threatening? b] Some tenants were secular and have since returned to faith. c] Some tenants were occupied with troubles. For example, sick/disabled family members. Now they have recovered and wish to return to building a sukkah for Sukkot. Question: Can it be demanded of this tenant to calculate the size of his apartment relative to the size of all the other apartments in this building and take a part of the courtyard that is up to this ratio? Or to stop taking any fixed part of the shared courtyard altogether? 2] For more than 3 years, the entire second half of this courtyard has been completely filled with junk and torn items of various kinds. And the tenant who placed these items there refuses to remove them. She believes she is doing this to create the impression that she is economically poor and crazy. Thus, there will be no thief who will try to break into her ground-floor apartment, which is adjacent to this courtyard. Question: Is it permissible to give her a warning that on a certain date, all the junk and torn items in this courtyard will be thrown into the trash, and when that date arrives, actually throw everything into the trash? And if I do so, am I obligated to buy her: a camera and alarm system, and a lifetime subscription to a private security company? 3] Can "Dina de-malchuta dina" be claimed? For in our generation, according to the law in Israel, even if for many years a neighbor completely took over the shared area of the building, and no one complained against him, this does not grant him any property rights beyond what he is entitled to according to the land registry. Thank you.

Answer

Peace and blessings 

Of course, it is necessary to come together before a judge. 

However, according to what is written in the question: a person has a chazakah in the courtyard to build a sukkah, because building a sukkah is a chazakah of usage, and then there is a chazakah even without a claim.

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