Need advice on property damage

Thank you in advance! Any help is greatly appreciated!

About: Our neighbor did renovations on the water pipes on their wall and bathroom causing the paint on our side of the wall to make disgusting "bubbles" and leaks.

Damage: The damage is on one full wall of our room that is back-to-back with the bathroom wall they're doing their hammering on. A few leaks also appeared near that area.

Other Misc. Infos: The neighbor also (1)made their carpenter walk on our roof; and (2) threw their renovation garbage on our roof.
They got mad when we called the subdivision guard to make them pickup their trash on our roof. The neighbor is also aware of the damage done to our side, but they claim "what can we do? we share one wall. If your wall is messed, so is ours!" (<- "dikit-dikit na bahay"). We've never experienced this on our other neighbor who has also done renovations.

Questions:
(1) Can we even make them pay for this?
Of course, they'll continue their renovation as they can't let their bathroom in that unfinished state, but our side is also getting damaged (it wasn't that way before) and we are also incurring expenses from this.

(2) What would be the best course of action to do that? (like who and where to approach)
*we've already contacted the subdivision clubhouse for this, but NOTHING.

Hello po,

(1) Yes
(2) I suggest you take photos of the damage done.

Subdivision clubhouse? Is the developer still managing your subdivision or the Hoa? Ask for help from the Hoa (written letter preferred).

If there is no action/no answer from the Hoa, go to the Barangay and ask them to mediate. Make sure that you have documents (receipts and photos) that you can show.

betchay001 wrote:Hello po,
Subdivision clubhouse? Is the developer still managing your subdivision or the Hoa? Ask for help from the Hoa (written letter preferred).

Sorry for the wrong term. The clubhouse here is probably also the homeowner's association, now that I think about it. I'm not sure on the developer part.

betchay001 wrote:If there is no action/no answer from the Hoa, go to the Barangay and ask them to mediate. Make sure that you have documents (receipts and photos) that you can show.

Thank you, friend.

just note that if this is not too big a thing, a harmonious relationship with your neighbor is much more desirable. Talk to them and explain what happened to your property and ask how you guys can solve this amicably.

if you are willing to file a case, you can first ask the subdivision HOA to mediate, then at your Bgy and then by filing a small claims case at the MTC. Just note that your opponent lives right beside you and the stress of this may not be worth it.

Sorry for the late reply, boss.

attyLLL wrote:
if you are willing to file a case, you can first ask the subdivision HOA to mediate, then at your Bgy and then by filing a small claims case at the MTC.

We have, again, filed a written letter of complaint for the damages to the HOA, and we're still waiting for a reply, but I'll keep my expectations low so I won't be disappointed. It included the
(1) date
(2) pictures and description (as advised by Betchay001), and
(3) purpose of writing (payment for damages).

attyLLL wrote:just note that if this is not too big a thing, a harmonious relationship with your neighbor is much more desirable. Talk to them and explain what happened to your property and ask how you guys can solve this amicably.

attyLLL wrote: Just note that your opponent lives right beside you and the stress of this may not be worth it.

Thank you for being so thoughtful, attyLLL, but this is the last straw. We don't want any fight, but we can't just standby anymore. Once they either get the damages repaired or they pay us a fair amount we'll use for the repair, we (*my family) will be willing to put this painful experience behind us. Although I can't say the same for my lovely neighbor.

have a reasonable estimate of the repair when you meet. if you intend to pursue and escalate, you can file a complaint at the bgy. You can also have it fixed yourself and then file a small claims case against them at the MTC, after which you will see him everyday.

Update: So what happened was when we sent the letter to the HOA. The OIC over there said "this is already beyond me", so he was supposed to send an engineer to take a look at our property for us since property damage is more of the engineer's expertise.

However, the HOA's hearings got postponed TWICE. And then our neighbor? They hit us with a complaint straight from the Baranggay about:
(1) Public scandal (because of the guards, I assume? *refer to post #1 misc. infos)
(2) "Harasstment" (???)
(3) Damage to property (Whoa!)
(4) "Mallicious Mischief" (???)

We got a letter saying we should attend the Baranggay's hearing SOON otherwise it is considered "contempt of court". When we asked the HOA employee what happens next, she said "there will be 3 hearings. IF you both do not make up, the court will issue a certificate to the complainer (my lovely neighbor) and they will be able to raise it to higher courts" (this is what I assume when they'll use lawyers?)

To make things worse, my lovely neighbor might also have some connections there. My mother who has already had a hearing in there before (about their TRASH on our property) was accused as "crazy" or mentally unstable, and nothing happened to her plea. (But I'll also be honest, it's because taking a picture of them caught redhanded throwing the trash is very difficult to achieve!)

Any advise or early condolences?

there is no court involvement in barangay level. only barangay conciliation takes place here. if no agreement has been reached between parties, then they will issue a certificate to file action. This is required in order to proceed filing a case in court.

just attend the barangay invitation and share your side of the story and bring all of your evidences to protect your side.

xtianjames wrote:there is no court involvement in barangay level. only barangay conciliation takes place here. if no agreement has been reached between parties, then they will issue a certificate to file action. This is required in order to proceed filing a case in court.

I know. There will be 3 barangay meetings first before all that. And if we do not make up in that 3 meetings, then that's the only time they'll be granted a certificate that they can use to file a case against us.

It just feels like a cheat for them to skip HOA and go straight to the barangay when we did not even had our HOA discussion yet, and they also refuse to look at the damages even when we kindly told them several times to go inside the house and have a look. The barangay will also ONLY issue that certificate to the complainer (which is them), but then, what about us who went to HOA first?

xtianjames wrote:
just attend the barangay invitation and share your side of the story and bring all of your evidences to protect your side.

I won't be the one who will be speaking at the barangay, but yes, that's what we plan to do. Or rather, what we really can only do, to be honest.

Lesson learned? Just skip HOAs?

My advise would be still proceed with the HOA process. You can use this against them once you get a favorable decision from them if the case goes to court. Also, you can share this fact with the barangay that you have already escalated this to HOA for resolution.

even if they are the first one to lodge a complaint against you in barangay, as long as you can prove to them that all the allegations are false/baseless, you have nothing to fear.

xtianjames wrote:My advise would be still proceed with the HOA process. You can use this against them once you get a favorable decision from them if the case goes to court. Also, you can share this fact with the barangay that you have already escalated this to HOA for resolution.

even if they are the first one to lodge a complaint against you in barangay, as long as you can prove to them that all the allegations are false/baseless, you have nothing to fear.

Alrighty, thank you for your advice!
The barangay meeting is on Wednesday, the HOA meeting is... whenever they've chosen it to be on, I guess. It looks like even the HOA employees are confused when it'll be.  We'll attend and share to them whatever papers and facts they'll need.

I just hope my neighbor WILL attend to the HOA when they're called to attend with us. It seems like they're only fixated on going straight to barangay. There is contempt of court for not attending in barangay, but no whatsoever if they skipped HOA? I'm still salty about that.

Another update: They suddenly dropped the allegations about us! These four basically:

(1) Public scandal
(2) "Harasstment"
(3) Damage to property
(4) "Mallicious Mischief"

My parent had told me they signed papers, and the neighbor has agreed to let someone check and pay for the repair of our wall. So everything's basically postponed. No more hearings, I guess. This is so weird.

Just a few hours ago, my neighbor was singing to herself all excited for the hearing tomorrow. She has relatives/connections there at the hearing who are all ready to pounce on us according to a watchful eye. But then they suddenly.... called quits?

Well.

I'm happy to hear that everything has been resolved. Maybe they just filed a complaint against you as a scare tactic and when they realized that you will not bulge settled to avoid dragging this out.

Thanks a lot for your time and inputs, guys! Every advice was greatly appreciated!

Happy to hear a positive outcome.