Sukkah Woes

Question

we live in an apartment building in eretz yisrael . there are six apartments in the building.each apt has a private entrance from outside. there are 2 apartments downstairs ,two street level, and two upstairs. the two apartments downstairs and two apartment on street level have a patio outside their front door that can be made into a sukka but the two apts upstairs do not have that space so they need to make their sukkas on the street. we live on the top so we have two spaces on the street to make our sukka. in front of the left side or in front of the right side of the building and we chose the right side because on the left, there is a tree leaning over it and if we were to move the sukka a bit over past the tree , the pavement is uneven there so the sukka would be shaky. the problem is that the neighbors on the right downstairs are really angry with us for making the sukka on the street in front of their apt because they like to park their car there and also because they make their sukka in front of their apt on that patio and they feel that our sukkas too close and its an invasion of privacy.( even though theirs is downstairs and ours is upstairs on the street). the street by the way does not belong to anybody it is public property, but they feel that they have a chazaka on it because they park their car there. they want us to take our sukka down and redo it elsewhere or at least take it apart and rebuild it with the door facing away from the building, which obviously would be a big tircha. they are very angry with us and said we should have asked them first. are we mechuav to move it?

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Answers

  1. If the parking spots are not officially designated to the apartments, then, Halachically, it is not so clear that they can claim that the place that you have built your Sukkah belongs to them. Aside from that I think that the other family really ought to be able to understand that you do not have another regular place to build your Sukkah that is still within a normal distance from your apartment and to “allow” you leave your Sukkah where it is for the duration of Yom Tov. If, however, you find things becoming increasingly uncomfortable I would suggest that you ask then to come with you to the local Rav and allow him to rule whether you can the leave your Sukkah where it is or if you have to move it.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team