With the progress of society and the improvement of people’s living standards, many owners have spent a lot of thoughts on decoration in order to live more comfortably and have more beautiful houses. There are many owners who misunderstand that houses are private property of individuals, thus ignoring the decoration safety. During the decoration process, a large number of illegal acts such as demolition, modification and expansion occur, which may damage the structure of houses and affect the overall safety of houses.

　　Recently, two pieces of news have aroused public concern and heated discussion: a tenant in Harbin privately demolished the load-bearing wall, which led to different degrees of wall cracking on the 4 th to 21 ST floors of the building, and more than 200 households were evacuated urgently and could not go home, with an estimated loss of 160 million yuan; Coincidentally, the owner of a residential area in Guangzhou dismantled the load-bearing wall privately during the renovation, which led to the floor sinking and wall cracking of the upstairs house … … Accidents caused by load-bearing walls have occurred frequently recently, which once again sounded the alarm about the safety of residential construction.

　　As the "life wall" of a building, is it illegal to demolish and change it privately? Who will bear the legal consequences? This paper will popularize and interpret the legal issues related to the renovation of related houses.

　　[news events]

　　According to media reports, a private demolition of the load-bearing wall in a residential area in Baiyun District, Guangzhou caused some wall cracks upstairs. This incident, like the multi-story wall cracking caused by the forced smashing of the load-bearing wall in Harbin residential building, also attracted great attention from all parties.

　　It is understood that a second-floor owner of the incident community had previously dismantled the load-bearing structure of the house privately, destroying the load-bearing beam and shear wall, causing cracks in some walls of the upstairs residents, and some owners have temporarily moved out for safety reasons.

　　After the accident, the owners entrusted the relevant housing appraisal company to conduct housing safety appraisal for Room 204 and Room 304. The report shows that some structural beams of Room 204 were demolished, and some shear walls were opened and partially demolished. The damage of both rooms meets the standard of "serious damage". Among them, the demolition and reconstruction of structural members of Room 204 seriously affected the safety of the building structure.

　　In May this year, the local sub-district office issued an open letter to the owner, saying that after the incident, the Housing Construction and Transportation Bureau and the sub-district office conducted mediation on this incident for the first time, and the Housing Construction and Transportation Bureau of this district has filed an investigation on the relevant situation, and has completed the temporary reinforcement and support project from April 8 to 18.

　　The sub-district office also said in an open letter that after investigation and judgment by experts, the overall structure of the building is stable and controllable at present, and personnel do not need to be transferred, but permanent reinforcement construction needs to be carried out as soon as possible. At present, many professional organizations in Guangzhou have been entrusted to carry out the design and construction of safety appraisal and testing and permanent repair and reinforcement projects.

　　Law popularization by lawyers

　　What is a load-bearing wall? How to judge the load-bearing wall?

　　Load-bearing wall, known as the "life wall" of a building, refers to the wall that supports the weight of the upper floor, is the backbone of the building, and is also an important part of determining indoor safety. The bearing wall is scientifically calculated. If the bearing wall is decorated with holes, it will affect the stability of the foundation.

　　Although the load-bearing wall is located in the owner’s home, it still belongs to a common part, and the owner’s use of the wall shall not destroy its basic function. According to Article 3 of the Supreme People’s Court’s Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in the Trial of Disputes over the Ownership of Buildings, the basic structural parts of buildings, such as foundation, load-bearing structure, external walls and roofs, public access parts such as passages, stairs and lobbies, ancillary facilities such as fire fighting and public lighting, equipment, stairs, refuge floor, equipment floor or equipment room, etc., should be recognized as common parts.

　　How to judge whether it is a load-bearing wall? Owners can generally check and judge through the house floor plan, and the walls marked as black are load-bearing walls. In addition, judging from the thickness of the wall, the thickness of the non-load-bearing wall is thin, usually only about 12 cm, while the wall of the load-bearing wall is generally thick, at least more than 24 cm. In addition, from the structural type, it can be judged that if it is a brick-concrete house, then all walls belong to load-bearing walls; If it is a frame structure wall, generally only the outdoor wall belongs to the load-bearing wall, and the others are non-load-bearing walls, depending on the actual situation.

　　What are the legal consequences of the owner’s demolition of the load-bearing wall? Do you have to bear criminal responsibility?

　　Dismantling the load-bearing wall privately will not only affect the house where it is located, but also affect other houses in the same building or unit, and will also endanger the integrity, earthquake resistance and structural safety of the building, and cause potential safety hazards to the whole building, so the actor may be subject to administrative punishment, civil compensation and even criminal punishment.

　　Judging from the provisions of the Civil Code, if there are indeed acts of privately demolishing load-bearing walls or other illegal decoration, whether it is the owners’ meeting, the owners’ committee, or the infringed parties or interested parties, they can claim corresponding rights for this act. Civil remedies include demanding to stop the infringement, removing the obstruction, eliminating the danger, restoring the original state and compensating for the losses. Among them, the compensation losses include housing appraisal fees, reinforcement design fees, reinforcement fees and losses due to the decrease of housing value.

　　From an administrative point of view, privately demolishing the load-bearing wall violates the provisions of Article 69 of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects. If a decoration project involving changes in the main body of the building or the load-bearing structure is constructed without a design scheme, it shall be ordered to make corrections and be fined not less than 500,000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan; Housing construction users who arbitrarily change the main body and load-bearing structure of housing construction during the decoration process shall be ordered to make corrections and be fined between 50,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan.

　　From the perspective of criminal responsibility, the act of dismantling the load-bearing wall without permission makes the building dangerous and endangers public safety, which is suspected of constituting the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means.

　　Law link:

　　Article 70 of China’s "Building Law" stipulates that in violation of the provisions of this law, renovation projects involving changes in the main building or load-bearing structure are constructed without authorization, and they shall be ordered to make corrections and be fined; If losses are caused, they shall be liable for compensation; If a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.

　　Article 115 of the Criminal Law stipulates that anyone who causes serious injury or death or heavy losses to public or private property by other dangerous means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death. Whoever negligently commits the crime mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years; If the circumstances are minor, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention.

　　If it is illegal construction in the construction process of the decoration company, or misleading the owner to make an illegal construction plan, what kind of responsibility should the decoration company bear?

　　As a professional decoration company, the decoration company should ensure that the decoration behavior is legal. Even if the scheme of demolishing and modifying the load-bearing wall is approved by the owner, it should not be demolished without legal procedures, otherwise it should bear corresponding compensation liability for its fault behavior.

　　For the decorators and decoration companies that are jointly and severally liable, the damaged residents have the right to request some or all of the jointly and severally liable persons to take responsibility. The responsibility share of the decorator and the decoration company shall be determined according to their respective responsibilities; It is difficult to determine the size of the responsibility, and bear the responsibility equally. Joint and several persons who actually assume more responsibility than their own share have the right to recover from other joint and several persons.

　　If you know or should know or even mislead the owner to make an illegal construction plan, causing serious consequences, the decoration company and the relevant responsible person may have to bear corresponding criminal responsibility.

　　Law link:

　　Article 1165 of the Civil Code stipulates that if the actor infringes on the civil rights and interests of others due to his fault, he shall bear the tort liability. If the actor is presumed to be at fault according to the law, and he cannot prove that he is not at fault, he shall bear tort liability.

　　Article 33 of the Measures for the Administration of Interior Decoration of Residential Buildings stipulates that the decorator shall be responsible for repairing and compensating for pipeline blockage, water leakage, water and power failure, damage to articles, etc. caused by interior decoration of residential buildings; Belonging to the responsibility of the decoration enterprise, the decorator can claim compensation from the decoration enterprise. If the decorator dismantles and changes heating and gas pipelines and facilities without authorization, the decorator shall be responsible for compensation.

　　Does the property company need to be responsible for the owner’s illegal demolition and renovation?

　　The realty service company accepts the employment of the owners’ meeting and collects the realty service fee, and shall perform the corresponding obligations according to the stipulations of the realty service contract and the legal provisions. Whether the property company needs to bear the responsibility depends on whether the property company has fulfilled the supervisory responsibilities such as prompting, inspecting, stopping and reporting before the owner’s renovation. If the property company fails to fulfill its obligation of prompting and stopping, it should bear certain liability for compensation for the losses caused by the illegal decorator, and may also face criminal punishment if it causes particularly serious consequences.

　　The property management company has the obligation to remind the owner of reasonable precautions, such as the placement of decoration materials, the limitation of decoration time and the limitation of decoration content, including the prohibition and related precautions, so as to avoid the owner from damaging the building, especially the common part of the building, in the process of decoration. If the property company fails to fulfill the obligation of prompting, which causes the decoration owner to damage the interests of other owners or cause losses to others, the property company will bear a certain proportion of responsibility.

　　Law link:

　　Article 945 of the Civil Code stipulates that the property management company, as the manager of the community, has the obligation to inspect the owner’s decoration behavior and the decoration site. Found violations have the obligation to stop, and report to the relevant departments.

　　Article 79 of Beijing Property Management Regulations stipulates that owners and property users who decorate houses shall inform the property service providers in advance, sign a decoration service agreement with the property service providers, and cooperate with them to conduct necessary on-site inspections. The agreement shall include the prohibition of decoration works, the requirements for garbage stacking and removal, as well as the cost and construction time. Owners or property users have not signed a decoration service agreement, or in violation of the relevant provisions and decoration service agreement, the property service person shall promptly discourage; Refuses to correct, the property service person shall promptly report to the relevant competent department.

　　If the owner conceals the damage of the load-bearing wall when selling the house, does he need to bear the responsibility?

　　When the owner sells the house, if he conceals the damage of the load-bearing wall, it is a violation of the principle of good faith in law, and the seller should bear the liability for breach of contract according to law.

　　The principle of good faith is one of the most important basic principles in the Civil Law, which is applicable to the whole field of civil law. Civil subjects should abide by this principle when exercising any civil rights and performing any civil obligations. The principle of honesty and credit requires upholding honesty and keeping promises, which is the premise and foundation for maintaining normal market order.

　　Law link:

　　Article 7 of the Civil Code stipulates that civil subjects should follow the principle of good faith, uphold honesty and keep their promises when engaging in civil activities. Article 509 stipulates that the parties shall fully perform their obligations as agreed. The parties shall follow the principle of good faith and fulfill the obligations of notification, assistance and confidentiality according to the nature, purpose and trading habits of the contract.

　　Text/gaoyu (lawyer of Beijing Zhongzheng Law Firm)

　　(Beijing Youth Daily)