Unable to bear the weight, the dismantled load-bearing wall frequently goes on the hot search for the owner behind it | decoration | load-bearing wall

Recently, according to media reports, a homeowner in Building 8 of Yihai Garden Community in Shenzhen renovated their home and smashed the load-bearing wall inside the renovated house. Other homeowners of the building gradually discovered cracks in their homes, causing concerns among multiple homeowners about the safety of the building's structure.

In fact, in the past two months, the issue of load-bearing walls being demolished has frequently made headlines. From the detention of four people in the "private demolition of load-bearing walls" incident in the Limin Xueyuan community of Harbin, to the violent renovation of 42 houses in Zhaoqing, Guangdong... The real estate sector is undoubtedly the most sensitive nerve of the Chinese people, and the issue of load-bearing walls is the most thorny and influential in the housing disputes.

The consequences of arbitrarily demolishing load-bearing walls can be perceived through photos and videos. Behind the determination of legal and repair responsibilities lies a history of innocent residents being implicated in "barbaric decoration". How to draw a red line on "barbaric decoration"? How can we avoid the serious consequences of compensation amounts often reaching 8 or 9 digits?

A sheared wall. Photo by Chao News reporter Li Shijia

Some have lost millions, while others have been imprisoned

Xie Lin did not expect that one day she would become the "unscrupulous homeowner" criticized by everyone in the community.

Last year, Xie Lin had an accident during the renovation process of a second-hand house she bought in Hangzhou. While installing the central air conditioning, the renovation workers did not carefully read the design drawings and knocked on the wall, resulting in accidentally hitting the load-bearing wall. Due to the large amount of renovation noise, a neighbor came to visit and found that the load-bearing wall had been knocked on. They immediately sent photos to the community owner group, and the group suddenly exploded.

Later, a resident upstairs expressed that there were small cracks on the wall of their home, suspecting that it was caused by Xie Lin's mistake in knocking on the load-bearing wall. This puts everyone in danger among the owners of the same building, requiring Xie Lin to conduct a safety assessment of the entire building and reporting her to the housing and construction department.

The load-bearing wall of a house is a common part of the house, which plays an important role in the safety and service life of the house. The act of demolishing or damaging load-bearing walls without authorization for personal gain harms the public interests and property rights of adjacent owners. If the circumstances and consequences are serious and pose a threat to public safety, one may also bear criminal responsibility.

After Xie Lin's house accidentally knocked on the load-bearing wall and was reported by the owner, according to relevant regulations, if the building user changes the main body and load-bearing structure of the house without authorization during the decoration process, they will be ordered to make corrections and fined not less than 50000 yuan but not more than 100000 yuan. Xie Lin was fined 100000 yuan by the top penalty.

But that's not enough. After damaging the load-bearing wall, it is necessary to conduct safety checks on the house and repair and reinforce it. At that time, many business owners upstairs requested that Xie Lin also conduct a safety check on their home. Xie Lin consulted a professional appraisal agency and learned that the testing cost for each household may be tens of thousands of yuan. If dozens of homeowners upstairs request it to be done once, plus maintenance, it will cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan. During that period, Xie Lin was under immense mental pressure.

Fortunately, the safety appraisal report of the professional organization shows that the safety level of the house is rated as A level, with no hazardous structural components, and can meet the requirements for safe use. Xie Lin felt relieved. Afterwards, Xie Lin paid tens of thousands of yuan for appraisal and testing fees as well as maintenance and reinforcement fees.

The staff of a professional organization said that in situations like Xie Lin's, the main responsibility lies with the renovation workers, and they can seek payment from the renovation company. But at that time, Xie Lin knocked on the wall to find a gig. After the incident, the other party made it clear that they couldn't compensate so much money. Xie Lin had to admit her bad luck and bear most of the expenses in the end.

After paying nearly 150000 yuan, Xie Lin was deeply moved by this frustrating experience: "Everyone who decorates should have a sense of awe towards load-bearing walls."

Compared to Xie Lin, in 2021, a homeowner of Xiaoshan Guali Commercial Apartment privately knocked on the load-bearing wall, resulting in the entire building becoming a D-level dangerous building, with even more serious consequences. After the incident, the owner and contractor were taken into criminal coercive measures by the police on suspicion of negligence and endangering public safety in a dangerous manner. Emergency evacuation of other residents and temporary relocation.

This year, the latest progress regarding the incident is that the building has undergone two rounds of reinforcement and is currently classified as B-level, with residents gradually moving back; The owners involved paid a total of 1.4971 million yuan in resettlement and compensation fees to the remaining 35 households in the building, as well as 1.025 million yuan in maintenance and reinforcement costs for the building, resulting in a total cost of 2.52 million yuan. Fortunately, with the understanding of all the owners of the 35 households in the building, the owners involved were ultimately exempted from being sued by the judicial authorities.

On the Chinese Judgment Online, it can be seen that cases related to the private demolition of load-bearing walls have serious circumstances, and the perpetrators are imprisoned. For example, a man named Shi from Fucheng, Hebei, demolished the load-bearing walls of the western and central houses of the old courtyard during the renovation of a house. In May 2018, the middle crossbeam of the renovated house broke, causing the collapse of the house and resulting in the death of five people. Shi was sentenced to three years and one month in prison for the crime of causing death due to negligence.

The "unauthorized demolition of load-bearing walls" incident in a residential building in Harbin caused over 200 homeowners to evacuate overnight, resulting in losses exceeding 100 million yuan. Although the case is still under further trial, five individuals, including tenants, construction workers, and property managers, have been criminally enforced by the police for suspected negligence in endangering public safety through dangerous methods. The owners of the involved houses and property companies will also be punished severely according to the upper limit. Legal experts believe that perpetrators will face civil, administrative, and criminal responsibilities and penalties.

The floor slab that has been opened up is an attempt by the owner to convert the maintenance floor downstairs into their own basement. Photo by Wu Jiayi, a journalist from Chao News

Why are private demolition of load-bearing walls repeatedly prohibited?

The phenomenon of Xie Lin knocking on the load-bearing structure of a house privately is not uncommon in Hangzhou.

The most famous one is undoubtedly the commercial apartment incident in Guali Town, Xiaoshan, which once hit the hot search on Weibo; Last year, more than 10 first-floor homeowners in Xiangsheng Yunjing Community, located in Zhuantang, violently smashed through the floor slab, attempting to turn the maintenance floor downstairs into their own basement. This was reported by numerous homeowners in the community; In February of this year, in the Huayuanfu community located in Jianqiao, several tenants on the second floor of some buildings illegally decorated and damaged shear walls, resulting in wall cracking in their homes.

According to Article 10 of the "Zhejiang Province Regulations on the Safety Management of House Use", registered first-class construction engineer Chen Lifeng told Chao News: "The decoration of residential houses shall not demolish or change the building foundation, beams, columns, floors, load-bearing walls, external walls and other building main bodies or load-bearing structures, and shall not exceed the original design standards to increase the load on the house." However, in actual decoration, why is the phenomenon of privately demolishing load-bearing walls repeatedly prohibited?

The Chao News reporter learned from the Hangzhou Housing Safety Appraisal and Testing Center that they receive many consultation cases every year after privately knocking on load-bearing structures.

A staff member stated that the reasons for privately knocking on load-bearing walls can be roughly summarized into three categories: "One category is to increase the space for use in the house, such as residents in old residential areas knocking down the wall between the balcony and bedroom, and residents in commercial residential areas smashing down the bay windows; the other category is to change the structure of the house, such as converting it into a group rental house or making major adjustments to the functional space of the house; and the other category is to install central air conditioning, air duct units, and other equipment pipelines that require opening or drilling, resulting in hitting the load-bearing structure."

Regarding this, Chen Lifeng said that old residential areas are usually brick and concrete structures, and brick walls bear the load-bearing function; The laws and regulations clearly prohibit owners from knocking down bay windows without authorization, and some bay windows have a certain load-bearing function; As for the construction of equipment pipelines involved in decoration, corresponding pipeline positions are usually reserved for rough houses, unless the owner considers relocation and secondary opening.

"Before opening a second hole, it is necessary to report to the property management and have the corresponding engineering personnel determine whether it will affect the structure. In addition, the diameter, spacing, and position of the holes during the second hole opening must comply with the corresponding specifications to prevent acts such as rough construction causing damage to the main reinforcement." Chen Lifeng introduced.

A property manager told Chao News reporters that the reason why phenomena such as rough decoration and private demolition of load-bearing walls are repeatedly prohibited is not only due to the lack of supervision in the decoration process, but also due to the weak legal awareness of homeowners. He said, "At present, the renovation process of homeowners is mainly supervised by the property management of the community, but often they are unable to do so. The homeowners promise not to make any changes, secretly close the door and carry out construction. When the property management comes to inspect and discovers the mistake, it has already been caused. In addition, non-standard and unprofessional renovation guerrilla teams can also easily lead to knocking on the load-bearing wall by mistake.".

Screenshot of the official website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development has issued a document to clarify the main responsibilities of all parties involved

According to data, since 2012, there have been 49 incidents of building collapse in China, of which 25 were caused by unauthorized demolition or addition of the main structure or floors of existing buildings, changes in usage functions, and increased loads, accounting for over 50%.

For a long period of time, there have been prominent issues in the implementation of laws and regulations related to decoration and renovation in various regions, such as uneven enforcement, inadequate implementation of relevant responsibilities, lack of standardized management, insufficient supervision and punishment measures. The private demolition of load-bearing walls seriously threatens the safety of residents' lives and property.

In order to root out this chaos, on June 9th this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development issued a notice on further strengthening the safety management of indoor decoration and renovation of urban houses, clarifying the responsibilities of all parties and relevant departments involved in decoration activities, including design units, decoration and renovation enterprises, property service enterprises, and local governments.

After the issuance of the Notice, some cities have started to take action, such as the Luodian Town Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Team in Baoshan District, Shanghai, which has established a special working group to lead new owners to identify the load-bearing structure of houses on site in each newly delivered residential area. In response to possible damage to the load-bearing structure and illegal construction during the decoration process, on-site Q&A will be conducted in a case by case interpretation and in a simple and easy to understand manner, shifting from "forced after the fact" to "pre prevention and control".

Jin Xizan, Vice Dean of the China Housing and Real Estate Research Institute at Zhejiang University of Technology, believes that the issuance of the Notice is conducive to further regulating the behavior of indoor decoration and renovation of houses, eliminating the mentality of luck among responsible parties, and enhancing their sense of responsibility.

She made several suggestions to the homeowners and decorators. Firstly, experienced and professionally qualified design companies and decoration teams should be selected to ensure that indoor decoration can ensure project quality and safety; Secondly, without the proposal of the original design unit or a design unit with corresponding qualifications, it is prohibited to change the main body and load-bearing structure of the building. Any demolition or modification of the main structure or significant increase in load must be applied to the local administrative department, and the safety appraisal unit of the house shall conduct safety review and approval before implementation.

Jin Xizan also stated that for decoration units, employees, including frontline workers, should receive regular safety training, continuously improve professional skills and safety awareness, and strictly follow standard construction procedures for construction. "Housing safety is no small matter, and load-bearing walls are the red line of design and construction. We must not have a mentality of taking chances!"