What is included
Help if smoke from a balcony or loggia regularly enters your apartment, interferes with using your home and infringes your right to a favourable environment.
What the legal adviser does
- analyses the situation, documents and evidence;
- determines where to complain and whether court action has prospects;
- prepares reports to the local police officer, police, property management company or homeowners’ association, Russian consumer protection authority or prosecutor’s office;
- prepares a formal demand to the neighbour;
- builds the evidence base;
- prepares the statement of claim and legal position;
- helps recover non-pecuniary damages and legal costs.
What evidence is needed
- photos and video of smoking or smoke;
- dates and times of incidents;
- witnesses;
- responses from the police, property management company and Russian consumer protection authority;
- inspection records, correspondence and notices;
- medical documents where allergies, asthma or children are involved;
- a smoke or ventilation specialist’s report, if required.
Pricing
from ₽7,000. The final price depends on the evidence, dispute stage, need for a visit, complaints, a formal demand, expert examination and court proceedings.
How to describe smoke entering from a balcony
For assessment, separately record the presumed source location and where the effect is felt in your apartment. Note the date, time, room, window condition and what you directly observed. If the source is only presumed, state that.
For example, an image of a person on a balcony confirms one observation, while information on smoke appearing in a room confirms another. A legal position needs to consider them together with recurrence, apartment locations, reports and other materials. One file must not replace a description of the whole sequence.
- Brief dated and timed records of individual incidents.
- Overview images showing the relative positions of windows and balconies.
- Original photos and video with an explanation of who made them and in what circumstances.
- Information from people who personally observed the relevant circumstances.
- Communications to the neighbour and organisations, together with responses received.
Keep original files separately from annotated or highlighted copies. State if a recording was made after exposure stopped. If ventilation or the smoke’s route needs investigation, define the specific technical question in advance; describing an unpleasant smell does not itself establish a system fault.
Assessment of a private balcony is based on its effects on neighbouring housing and the chosen remedy. It cannot simply be reduced to rules for communal indoor areas. This distinction is considered when preparing a submission and evaluating the materials.