Many people have been injured! Who should take responsibility?, Smash people! Smash the car! Multiple high-rise residential buildings have experienced external wall detachment | incident | high-rise residential buildings

As buildings gradually age, a prominent issue is the detachment of external walls. With the recent extreme weather such as high temperature and rainstorm, the frequency of external wall falling off has increased, which not only seriously interferes with the normal life of residents, but also poses a serious threat to public safety.

On July 5th, insulation materials for the exterior walls of a high-rise residential building in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province fell off extensively. The next day, a high-rise building in Xinhua, Hunan also experienced the peeling of exterior tiles, resulting in multiple injuries.

The reporter found that this year, there have been cases of external wall detachment in high-rise buildings in various places.

In early June, in Hualan Jiayuan Community, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, an 80 year old homeowner was hit by falling exterior wall tiles and was injured and hospitalized. At present, multiple warning lines and wire protection nets have been set up in areas that are easily hit by falling tiles in the community.

The reporter noticed that on the exterior walls of several buildings in the community, there are at least dozens of visible traces of ceramic tiles falling off. The community owner told reporters that in recent years, many residents, pedestrians, and even parked vehicles have been smashed with tiles.

The community owner told reporters that the situation of tiles falling off has been occurring since the community first moved in in 2013. Before 2018, as it was still within the 5-year warranty period, the community developer would still paint and repair the exterior walls; After 2018, the exterior walls were never repaired again, and the property management company began to build steel frame protective nets and set up warning lines at the entrance of each building unit. In recent years, more and more protective nets have been installed, and the warning lines have been stretched longer and longer.

External wall detachment poses a threat to public safety and affects the quality of external walls due to multiple factors

The occurrence of external wall detachment poses an undeniable threat to public safety. Why are there frequent incidents of external wall detachment in buildings? What causes the exterior walls of buildings to fall off?

Experts analyze that external wall detachment mainly occurs in two forms of building facades. One is the common ceramic tile exterior walls in residential buildings around 2000.

Experts told reporters that since 2000, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Xiamen, Xi'an and other places have successively introduced relevant regulations to restrict or prohibit the use of exterior wall tiles in high-rise buildings. Starting from September 14, 2022, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development has officially banned on-site cement mixed mortar pasting of exterior wall decorative bricks. But before the relevant regulations came into effect, a large number of buildings had already adopted the ceramic tile exterior wall technology.

Another type of exterior wall that frequently falls off is the commonly used adhesive anchor exterior wall structure in recent years. This external wall form uses cement mortar to bond the insulation board material to the base wall, then anchor bolts are used to fix it, and the outermost layer is coated with paint. Commonly used insulation materials, such as polyurethane, are prone to aging and deformation over time, while rock wool materials are prone to collapse after absorbing water. Outer coatings such as real stone paint are also prone to aging after prolonged exposure to sunlight and rain. During the construction process, there are also many limitations to the working conditions.

Experts say that when extreme weather conditions such as high temperatures, strong winds, rainfall, and hail occur, it may also accelerate the aging of the exterior walls of houses, leading to detachment.

Difficulty in holding accountable for external wall detachment and subsequent repair difficulties

Due to various reasons, it is difficult to completely avoid the detachment of the building facade. However, the victim wants to hold the property accountable, and the homeowner also faces many difficulties in the actual process of repairing it.

The owner of Hualan Jiayuan Community in Xi'an, Shaanxi told reporters that in June, the ceramic tiles that injured residents fell off the exterior wall of a hotel in the community. According to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, the property damage or personal injury caused by the detachment of the exterior wall of a residential building shall be borne by the owner, manager or user of the building.

The owner of Hualan Jiayuan Community in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province: The hotel where the tiles fell off has always been owned by the developer. Now that the injured elderly have been discharged from the hospital, the street office has instructed them to file a lawsuit in court to claim medical expenses.

A government information disclosure letter provided by the community owner to the reporter showed that the developer of the community organized a survey, design, construction, and supervision unit to conduct a completion acceptance of the project in September 2013. However, the completion acceptance record form, acceptance report, and other materials for the construction project in the community do not exist. Owners believe that without complete completion and acceptance filing procedures, the 5-year warranty period for the property cannot be calculated from the delivery date. Developers cannot refuse to assume responsibility on the grounds that the warranty period has expired.

Wang Congwei, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm: Whether it is a developer, an owner or a property company, he must provide evidence to prove that he is not responsible for the fall of the outer wall before he can be exempted from liability.

Owners have stated that currently, setting up warning lines and protective nets cannot fundamentally solve the problem, and it seriously affects the normal life of residents. But the community has not established a homeowner assembly or elected a homeowner committee, and even if special maintenance funds are used for exterior wall repairs, there is no one taking the lead. Lawyers also stated that homeowners need to go through corresponding procedures and reach a certain threshold before they can use the money.

Wang Congwei, lawyer of Beijing Jingshi Law Firm: For example, there are several buildings in the community, one of which has a facade falling off, and the other buildings are not involved, so they may not be willing to provide a special maintenance fund. When used, coordination is actually difficult.

Experts say that in addition to the peeling of the exterior walls, there are still many areas in the building that need to be repaired and improved after aging. To this end, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development proposed this year to study the establishment of three systems for housing physical examination, elderly care, and insurance, providing full life cycle safety guarantees for houses.