What exactly should we do?, Supervision is just a formality... knocking on the "load-bearing wall" has made homeowners feel lucky and report to the community

As the backbone of building construction, load-bearing walls support the weight of the upper floors and are an indispensable load-bearing component of the building. However, in order to expand the usage space or achieve one's own decoration effect, the behavior of destroying "load-bearing walls" is common. Since the beginning of this year, several barbaric renovations across the country have once again made "load-bearing walls" a hot topic of discussion.

Recently, Ms. Chu, a resident of Shanghai, discovered that since the delivery of her affordable housing community at the end of last year, homeowners have been smashing walls during the renovation process, which has caused her great concern. "Some people connect two houses together and smash the middle wall, isn't it very dangerous?" With a question, she dialed the complaint hotline.

In fact, similar concerns are not uncommon. According to relevant laws and regulations, knocking on "load-bearing walls" has long been explicitly prohibited, but why is it still frequent? How should we manage this chaos?

Is it necessary to knock?

Ms. Chu lives in a newly delivered affordable housing community in Minhang District. On the morning of June 7th, as soon as the reporter walked into the entrance of the community, the sound of electric drills and tapping echoed one after another. The yellow stickers on the exterior windows of each building indicated that there were many houses under renovation. Following the sound of renovation, the reporter visited several households and found some clues: two renovated houses are located on different floors in the same building and location, but the size of the entrances and exits left in the kitchen is not the same; As some of the windows of the houses face the hallway, the reporter observed that the structures inside the houses on different floors are not the same. Some are narrow corridors, while others have excavated the wall area to connect with the room on the other side, seemingly matching what Ms. Chu said about "smashing the middle wall".

The yellow stickers on the exterior windows of each building indicate that there are many houses under renovation.

Through the window, the internal structure of the community at the same location is slightly different.

Are these differences caused by knocking down the load-bearing wall? The property management staff of the community took out drawings and provided detailed answers to the reporter's doubts. Due to multiple photocopies, the light colored wall area on the drawing is no longer obvious, but the load-bearing wall marked with black solid lines is still clear and distinguishable. The staff told reporters that as soon as they received the house, the owners raised doubts about the kitchen design of the house. "The door in the kitchen of a certain unit is particularly narrow, only 1.2 meters, surrounded by load-bearing walls, and many owners have a strong willingness to make changes."

The drawings presented by the property management.

The probability of knocking on load-bearing walls suddenly increases when the area is small and the layout is unreasonable. Zhu Qing, who has worked in the decoration and renovation industry for more than 20 years, said, "Owners use different methods such as opening holes, thinning, or partially or completely demolishing load-bearing walls to improve the layout and increase the usable area." In an interview, a resident of the community also told reporters that in fact, owners are aware of the harm of "knocking on load-bearing walls", but there is a certain sense of luck when facing unreasonable layouts.

At the same time, in the home decoration industry, which should have adhered to norms, some companies have also joined the ranks of "taking risks". "Designers have insufficient awareness of laws and regulations, or they want to make their decoration plans more distinctive and win the favor of customers. Sign contracts as soon as possible." Zhu Qing introduced that most of the load-bearing walls are designed to meet customer needs. If home decoration companies do not agree, customers will switch to other companies or road guerrilla teams. "If there is demand, there will be a market. If consumers want to do it, they will definitely have someone to help them complete it." The reporter saw a red sign standing next to the distribution room in the community, "knocking on the wall" prominently located within its service scope. When the reporter called to inquire, the other party directly stated that "different walls have different prices, and load-bearing walls are also acceptable", and advised the reporter not to speak up.

Vertical signs in the community.

Why can't we control it?

In fact, in order to stop the illegal demolition of load-bearing walls, the punishment efforts are constantly increasing. Starting from June 2020, the Shanghai Urban Management System, in conjunction with the Housing Management Bureau, launched the "City wide Residential Property Decoration and Decoration Management Execution Linkage System" to share information on illegal and irregular behaviors such as damage to the load-bearing structure of houses reported by citizens, and timely accept and handle administrative penalties. On the other hand, it is not difficult to find through the relevant court judgment documents that serious accidents caused by barbaric decoration and private smashing of load-bearing walls, in addition to the owner, the construction party, property management company and other relevant responsible persons also bear the responsibility.

However, once a load-bearing wall is knocked down, it will greatly weaken the load-bearing capacity and seismic performance of the wall. Even if relevant measures are taken, the harm caused is irreversible. Therefore, preventive management in advance is particularly important. The reporter learned that currently, there is a relatively detailed process for community decoration: before the owner decorates the house, they should provide the property management with the decoration design drawings. After the property management agrees, construction can be carried out according to the drawings. If there are violations such as "demolishing walls" during the construction process, the property management can request the cessation of construction and restoration of the original state. If the owner does not accept the request, the property management can take management measures, including temporarily stopping power and water supply, to stop illegal construction until corrected, or report to the urban management department in a timely manner. But during the investigation and visit by the reporter, it was found that this process was not implemented one by one.

Since May, the knocking on the wall behavior of a household on the ground floor of Xianghe Garden in Putuo District has aroused the vigilance of residents on the same floor. However, when they reported it to the property management, they provided a response stating that it was not a load-bearing wall. The residents questioned and immediately requested the property management to verify the drawings, but the property management was unable to provide them for a long time. On June 7th, during an interview with reporters in the community, a staff member stated that the company had entered the community around 2017, and "there are no drawings at the moment." As for the pre renovation review and reporting, as well as the inspection during renovation, the main focus was on renovation waste, construction management, etc. The load-bearing wall, which is "difficult to manage and lacks law enforcement power," resident Mr. Xu told reporters that it was not until they called the 12345 citizen service hotline that the urban management team came to inspect and preliminarily determined it to be a load-bearing wall. Currently, it is being sent to a third-party company for further testing

On June 7th, construction stopped at the homes of residents who were complained of demolishing load-bearing walls.

Similarly, Lane 47, Lixi Road, Changning District is also an old residential area, and the renovation and smashing of walls by residents on the ground floor have also caused dissatisfaction among residents on the upper floors. With the intervention of urban management, the load-bearing wall that was knocked down has been restored to its original state, but residents have questioned the lack of supervision during the decoration process and have not seen any property inspections. On June 8th, the property reporter called the community property management center to inquire about the materials required for pre renovation reporting. The other party listed the owner's name, phone number, and contractor team information. As for the so-called design drawings, they said they did not need to be provided.

That is to say, the implementation of the so-called decoration supervision process is directly related to the level of property management. Especially in some old residential areas, property management is not strict, and some practitioners do not have the ability to distinguish and review drawings, resulting in front-end supervision becoming a decoration.

Neither party can be absent

How to deal with the chaos of "randomly knocking on load-bearing walls"? Professor Chen Jie, Director of the Housing and Urban Rural Development Research Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, believes that it is necessary to form a joint effort from multiple parties.

"The construction team's decoration entry must be registered with the property management, and the construction waste in the community should be disposed of in a centralized manner. As the first checkpoint of entering the community, the property management can adopt refined management methods, such as counting the construction waste according to each household's location, and discovering clues in a timely manner." Chen Jie proposed that the property management company should take practical supervision responsibility, further strengthen the full process supervision of the construction project and decoration company, refine and strictly implement the reporting process of the main construction parties.

On the other hand, the local housing management department should prepare a standardized decoration notice, which should be prominently posted by the community property management on the construction site and cannot be torn off before completion. The community should also actively mobilize residents to participate in supervision, especially reminding those who are renovating houses to pay more attention to whether there are any abnormal situations. In addition, digital means can also be considered to strengthen governance. "Where conditions permit, mandatory installation of cameras during residents' indoor decoration can be considered, with direct access to the local housing management bureau's control room and synchronized with the community's property management."

Yan Yuejin, the research director of E-House Real Estate Research Institute, suggested strengthening the cultivation of professional ethics among practitioners, punishing and restricting those who do not comply with regulations. "A one vote veto system can be established. If construction industry practitioners engage in illegal activities, stricter management measures can be taken, such as restricting employment, to make the safety red line of load-bearing walls clearer."

In addition, a grassroots law enforcement officer suggested that the real estate intermediary group should also be included in the process of participating in governance. Originally, when dealing with cases related to load-bearing walls, he had encountered a complaint from a second-hand homeowner who claimed that the damaged load-bearing wall was caused by their previous home and not his own actions, which posed certain difficulties to comprehensive law enforcement. "This type of second-hand housing dispute is frequent, and the intermediary industry can also establish industry standards by conducting background checks on the basic information of the housing before conducting transactions, reducing disputes."

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