Bava Batra 6: Lying Neighbours, Acquired Privilege, Shared Repairs

The rabbis discuss conflicts that arise regarding whether or not one neighbour has paid already for his share of the fence built by both of them.  They consider what is normative payment (at the end of each row?), the size of the wall compared with the size of another wall built close by, and how one might determine whether or not the neighbour is lying.  The rabbis go into greater detail regarding the height and length of the additional wall.  They consider attachments to the wall and whether or not preparations for an attachment to the wall create a presumption of payment.  Those attachments might be thick or thin beams atop or built into the wall. 

The rabbis seem to agree that one a person has acquired the privilege of attaching thin beams to the wall, they have acquired the privilege of attaching thick beams.  But then they argue about putting a drainpipe to direct the water drips that flow from one property to the other.

The rabbis then discuss rental agreements, which continues to be very relevant today.  Should one who rents a room in another's building have access to the the projections protruding from the wall as hooks up to four cubits away from his room?  Should he be able to use a thick wall for his own purposes?  Should one have use of the front garden?  The back garden?  The rabbis consider acquired privilege: if a person uses another person's property for thirty days with no complaint from the owner, they have acquired the privilege to continue that use.  This is compared with the practice of building a sukkah.  There is no acquired privilege for using another's wall for the seven days of Sukkot.  After that time period, one must submit a complaint to ensure that the sukkah components are removed to ensure that they do not stay up.  

We learn about houses that are built across from each other on two sides of the public domain.  Barriers are built on people's roofs to block visual access to the public and to those neighbours directly across from them.  In the case above, each person is instructed to build a wall on half of their roof, not directly across from each other.  This ensures that foundations remain solid (without the weight of full fences on each roof) and that both owners have privacy from the other and from the public.  The rabbis discuss the height of such barriers and the materials used to build these barriers.  

The next example is that of two adjoining courtyard where one is higher than the other.  It is suggested that the owner of the lower field builds the foundational part of the wall and the owner of the upper courtyard pays for the building costs atop that wall.  In this discussion, it is noted that it is not usually necessary to build barriers that account for sight from one's roof, for people do not usually used their roofs.

Finally we begin the story of  two people living above/below each other in a two story building.  The lower story begins to collapse and its owner suggests that they demolish and rebuild the entire building.  The owner of the upper story does not need to make this change and says that he does not wish to pay for rebuilding the other owner's residence.

Today's daf brought me back to learning Eruvin a number of years ago, where we learned about some of the considerations regarding barriers, boundaries and privacy among other issues.