They want to knock my house down on Wednesday!

I came home for lunch today to find a notice stuck on the outside of our building. Basically it says that they’re going to demolish our house on Wednesday (the day after tomorrow)!!!

WTF can we do?

We live in a 2-storey independent house. As far as we can gather, it was illegal for them to alter it from 1-storey to 2-storey. But we’re not even sure of this. My wife calls up the office (Gong Lu Ju or something), and all they say is “talk to your landlord”. The landlord says he’s trying to do something, but I’m not going to just trust that he sorts it all out.

Any protection for tenants?

Surely there’s a law about periods fo notice for demolition?

Well, I’ll try and get a lawyer for sure, but anyone got any other suggestions about useful organisations or anything that we can contact for advice/help?

Brian

That’s outrageous to give such short notice. Are there any houses either side with an illegal 2nd floor?

Depending on where u live:

  1. Li Zhang(borough warden) - can have quite a lot of say in what can stay and what goes.

  2. City Council Members - have lots of influence with the bureaucrats that want to knock down ur building.

  3. The Bureaucrats that issued the ‘buildinging-to-be-knocked-down’ notice.

kinda hard to ‘create’ guanxi at the last minute, as in ur case, sir.

if your landlord has managed to piss off the above three, or he is in deep shxt with busybody neighbors who like to report illegal structures as they deem fit…then there is little u can do, except pack up whatever u have stored in the ‘illegal extension/expansion’ and welcome the demolition crew in a few minutes before they commence work. if u buy them some nice drinks and cigarettes, they might do a ‘cleaner’ job of wrecking the expansion.

good luck man.

-chris

I doubt you have any rights here as a tenant. If I were you I’d move my stuff now and ask questions later. I find it hard to believe the landlord didn’t know this was coming.

[quote]That’s outrageous to give such short notice. Are there any houses either side with an illegal 2nd floor?
[/quote]

That might well be the problem.

As far as we can gather they wanted to demolish the illegal new 2nd floor (or part of it) on the house next door. Next door, who has never been on good terms with our landlords (who use dto live int his house), said “what about next door, if you demolish part of ours, you have to do theirs too”.

Apparently they told our landlord 3 years ago that there was something wrong with the 2nd floor, but he ‘sorted it out’. (That’s probably why 2 days is sufficient). From what he said, the extension is basically legal, but just a tiny bit too high, or too far in front or something. He’s being very Taiwanese and not giving a clear answer. He just assures us that he’ll talk to them on Thursday and it will be fine. 100% sure. I get the feeling he’s trusting on some guanxi or something.

My wife has called relevantorganisations and they basiocally say “we can’t help you - it’s between you and your landlord”. Great. The office who’s doing it wouldn’t even tell us what part of the house is being demolished or whay - “ask your landlord”.

Might just have to take the day offf work and lie down in front of the tractor.

Brian

How about calling a TV news station? They love this sort of stuff and the publicity might buy you some time.

Might be better without the telly as the driver realises to his horror there’s a bloody great foreigner in the doorway who can’t seem to understand a ball swinging towards a buidling means get out of the way.

I’d pack but not let them know it then try and plead more time. You don’t want them smashing anything up. Is it just the illegally constructed second floor or is the whole house to come down?

Good luck Bri.

HG

I came back to Taiwan from a christmas holiday 4 years ago to find my joint was gone too. Fortunately they told my wife and gave her about a week to move out. I remember my wife ringing up a few places but the general conscencious was that we were screwed.

Come again? :s

Ah, you know he meant ‘consensus’ :slight_smile:

Good luck Brian! That’s one hell of a ‘living in Taiwan’ story…

Yeah, good luck, Brian. I hope things work out.

Please keep us posted. I’d like to hear how this one turns out, for the postitive, one hopes.

Didn’t your landlord inform you of this impending situation before you moved in and/or signed a lease?
If not, you may have grounds to sue him/her.

[quote]Didn’t your landlord inform you of this impending situation before you moved in and/or signed a lease?
If not, you may have grounds to sue him/her.[/quote]

Well, we’re just hoping that if the worst comes to the worst we can sue him, yes. I don’t think he’s a bad bloke really, but I’d do it in a flash.

My current understanding best guess, is something like this:

They told my landlord that the 2nd floor was too big 3 years ago. He ‘sorted it out’ (I’m guessing guanxi/informally). Recently the nextdoors built a 2nd floor. They say, “well how about them?”. More hassle.

Brian

but earlier…

Hey, is this right? Or did you mean Tuesday? (or did I miss something?)

As Huang Guang Chen asked, are they just going after the 2nd floor, or the whole house? Or is that the problem, because you guys are on the 2nd floor?

Best of luck.

Why not invite a crowd of Forumosans round for a party on Wednesday, as well as getting some media in? You might call Shehui Zhuijiling on 01 2389 4127.

Oh, it turned out to be Thursday not Wednesday (my wife mixed up the date).

The notice just said something about demolition, but turns out is only part of the 2nd floor they want to demolish (we live in 1st and 2nd floor - it’s a 1 storey building that was extended). Still I think it should all be OK.

(Bicycle got nicked today, house demolition, stolen bike, and it’s only Tuesday :cry: )

Brian

I know the feeling…I lost mine two months ago right in front of our office…

bikex

So, Bri, is your house still standing?

Iris

Oh yeah. I took the morning off yesterday and the landlord came over to talk to us. No worries he said, they won’t come. Weird, but seemingly sorted out. Thanks for your concern everybody.

Brian

Good to hear, Brian.