Someone put sundries in the elevator groove? The 60-year-old owner sued the property and the industry committee......

The elevator in the high-rise community is the "life passage" for the owners who live on the high floor. If the elevator fails, it will inevitably annoy the owners, and if it is suspected that the elevator fails artificially, it will be even more frightful. In July last year, an elevator broke down in an elevator house in Hongkou. After investigation, there was sundries in the elevator groove. The owners asked the property and the industry committee to find out the person who put the sundries, but there was no result. As a result, the owner, Mr. Liu (pseudonym), sued the property and the industry committee to the Shanghai Hongkou court, demanding that the elevator maintenance records be made public and the person who destroyed the elevator......

In court, Mr. Liu, who is over 60 years old, complained that on July 12 and 14, 2022, the elevator in the building where he lived had elevator outages one after another during the rush hour, which caused great inconvenience to the owners during the period, and everyone was concerned about such a failure.

After checking the monitoring, the industry committee and the property jointly stamped and issued a notice saying that it was found that someone deliberately put foreign matter in the concave pit of the elevator in the building, causing the elevator to stop running.

The notice said: "All owners: In recent days, the elevator in Room 1 of Building X has found that someone has placed a plum core and coins under the elevator car door slot for the second time in a row, making the elevator unable to operate normally and destroying the normal life of the owners in the residential area. This happened several times in the elevator of building x a few years ago. At that time, I learned the cause of the elevator failure through the alarm. I hope that all owners will be more vigilant, report to the police immediately if they find similar situations, and report to the property company to catch the sabotage."

At that time, the owner asked for the responsibility of the person who destroyed the elevator that day, but waited for more than 20 days without waiting for the result.

The plaintiff, Mr. Liu, believed that the owner used the elevator every day to get in and out, and he was worried about it all day long, but the person who damaged the elevator has not been found out.

He requested that the defendant's property and industry committee should disclose the information about the personnel who damaged the elevator published in the "Notice" on July 14, 2022 on the bulletin board of the community, and require the defendant's property to disclose the elevator repair and maintenance records.

Property: not sure of man-made damage

The defendant property argued that he agreed to disclose the elevator repair and maintenance records, but did not agree to publish the so-called elevator sabotage.

The defendant's property said that on July 12 and 14, 2022, the elevators of the residential buildings involved were shut down one after another. After receiving the owner's report for repair, the property went to the scene to check and contact the elevator company for repair. It was found that there were coins and plum cores in the groove of the elevator door. The elevator company repaired the elevator after removing the sundries. The property did not call the police at that time, but reported the situation to the industry committee.

After that, some owners requested to call the police on the matter in the owner's WeChat group, so the property employees called the police and explained the situation to the community police through their mobile phones. On July 14, 2022, the property staff checked the monitoring in the elevator. However, since the monitoring image can only be stored for 36 hours, and the time of the incident has exceeded the time range for image storage, it was not found how the sundries entered the elevator door groove, and it was impossible to determine whether the sundries were transferred into the elevator door groove by non-human factors or whether someone deliberately did it.

To this end, the property and the property committee jointly issued a "notice" related to the case, hoping that all owners living in the building will take care of and protect public property. If the property finds that the above incident was intentionally committed, it will notify the industry committee and publicize it to the plaintiff, Mr. Liu, and assist in handling it with the police.

According to the property service contract, the service of the defendant's property does not include publishing the elevator repair and maintenance record form and various equipment use management marks, but the property promises to post and publicize the elevator repair and maintenance record form in each elevator in the community on a monthly basis starting from July 1, 2023, and promises to pay attention to the wording of the notice in the future to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding, however, no explanation will be issued for the "Notice" involved in the case.

The written reply submitted by the defendant's industry committee also showed that it did not agree with Mr. Liu's claim of "personnel who publicly damaged the elevator. The Industry Committee said that on July 12 and 14, 2022, the above-mentioned elevators were shut down one after another. The property immediately went to the site for disposal after receiving the report. After checking, it was found that there were sundries in the elevator door groove causing the elevator operation failure. The Industry Committee did not know how the sundries entered the elevator door groove. Therefore, a similar incident occurred in the former elevator. The Industry Committee and the property jointly negotiated and issued a "Notice" concerning the case. The purpose of issuing the "Notice" is to hope that the owners living in the building will take care of and protect the public finance. If any malicious damage to public property is found, the Industry Committee will contact the police to handle it in a timely manner.

Court: Elevator maintenance records should be made public on a monthly basis

The Hongkou Court held that the owner's right to know refers to the owner's right to know about matters related to the owner's common rights and common management rights within the building zone. In this regard, the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Disputes over the Distinction of Ownership of Buildings" has clearly stipulated the scope of the owner's right to know.

According to this provision, the owner shall exercise the right to know in a reasonable way and shall be protected by law. Based on the "Notice" issued by the defendant's industry committee and the property on July 14, 2022, the plaintiff requested the industry committee and the property to disclose to all owners of Xinwenyuan the information about the personnel who damaged the elevator on the bulletin board. The court made the following discussion:

The premise of "publicly damaging the elevator personnel" is that the industry committee and the property know whether the elevator involved is man-made damage, and if the elevator involved is man-made damage, the industry committee and the property know the specific damage personnel, but the plaintiff did not give evidence or give a logical explanation on the above premise.

In addition, both the industry committee and the property said that the purpose of issuing the above-mentioned "notice" is to hope that the owners living in the building can take good care of and protect public property, and report any malicious damage to public property in time so as to report to the police. The property also fully stated the whole process of checking the elevator monitoring according to the owner's requirements, and explained the reason and process of failing to find sundries entering the elevator door groove due to the limited storage time of the monitored images. The statement is logical and reasonable. Therefore, the property management committee and the property company cannot actually perform the plaintiff's request to publicly damage the elevator personnel. Therefore, the court will not support the plaintiff's request.

In addition, even if the industry committee and the property have elevator monitoring image data, involving illegal crimes and other content, the industry committee and the property should provide it to the public security and other organs, rather than to the owners. As a public facility in the community, elevators are related to the lives and property safety of residents and outsiders. Therefore, elevator repair and maintenance records fall within the scope of the owner's right to know. The plaintiff's request to disclose the records should be supported. In the trial, the defendant defended on the grounds that the disclosure of elevator repair and maintenance records was not agreed in the property service contract, however, it promises to be responsible for disclosing the elevator repair and maintenance records from July 1, 2023 on a monthly basis and posting them in each elevator in Xinwenyuan Community. Considering the purpose and function of elevator repair and maintenance record disclosure, the court will adjust the starting time of this information disclosure.

If the defendant's industry committee serves the court summons through the announcement of the court and fails to attend the court proceedings, it shall be deemed to have waived the corresponding litigation rights.

To sum up, the judgment of Hongkou court is as follows: from the effective date of this judgment, the defendant property management co., ltd. will disclose the repair and maintenance records of all elevators in the community since July 1, 2023 on a monthly basis and post them in the corresponding elevators, rejecting other claims of the plaintiff.

Source: Morning News, China Elevator

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