Property is too capricious.

There are many cases caused by the destruction of load-bearing walls. Some time ago, residents of a residential area in Hangzhou knocked down the load-bearing wall when decorating their own houses, which led to serious cracks in the wall of the whole building and made the whole building a D-class dangerous building. Then, what kind of legal responsibility may the residents bear if they dismantle the load-bearing wall of the building without the approval of any unit? Let's look at a case first.

Brief introduction of the case

Party A signed the Decoration Engineering Construction Contract with a decoration company, stipulating that Party A would contract out the interior decoration project to a decoration company to contract workers and materials, with the engineering amount of X yuan, and Party A would entrust a decoration company to design and construct the drawings. After the contract was signed, a decoration company carried out the construction, and A paid the project payment as agreed.

Later, the Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Committee of a certain district made a notice of correction and an administrative penalty decision respectively, demanding A to rectify, and fined A * * * X yuan on the grounds that it changed the main structure of the building without authorization and entrusted the decoration project to a decoration enterprise that did not have the corresponding qualification grade. A restored and strengthened the demolished load-bearing wall, and paid xx yuan and a fine for it.

A sued a decoration company and demanded compensation for all losses such as fines.

court decision

The court of first instance held that:

In the process of construction, the load-bearing wall was changed, and A, as the employer, should know and agree. He is ignorant of the change and is at fault for the loss, which obviously goes against common sense. As a decoration enterprise, a decoration company should know that it is not allowed to demolish the load-bearing wall without legal procedures, but it is still demolished, and it should bear the corresponding liability for compensation. According to the fault degree of both parties, A Decoration Company shall be liable for half of the fines and repair and reinforcement expenses incurred by A ... The losses claimed by A shall be determined by the court considering the fault degree of both parties and the actual price. To sum up, the court supported the reasonable part of A's request. After the verdict, A refused to accept it, demanded an increase in compensation for losses and appealed to the Intermediate People's Court.

After trial, the Intermediate People's Court held that:

The load-bearing wall of the building has been replaced. As an employer, Party A knows the change plan and agrees that there is a fault in the occurrence of the loss. A appealed that his knowledge of the change plan did not necessarily infer that he knew that the change plan would involve the demolition and renovation of the load-bearing wall, which was contrary to common sense and he failed to provide relevant evidence to prove it. The court refused to adopt it. Considering the fault degree and actual price of both parties, the court of first instance ruled that a decoration company should compensate for the loss of X yuan, which was not improper. A appeal requires the decoration company to bear the losses according to the proportion of primary and secondary, which is unfounded in the law. In the end, the Intermediate People's Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

The judge's statement

The load-bearing wall of a building plays an important role in the safety and service life of the building. Changes in the main building and load-bearing structure should be proposed by the original design unit or a design unit with corresponding qualification grade, and must be entrusted to a decoration company with corresponding qualification. In the process of decorating houses, owners should pay more attention to the structural safety of houses while pursuing beautiful forms and reasonable layout. Before decorating the house, the owner should know the structure of the house and the location of the load-bearing wall in advance. If there is no legal procedure, the owner should bear the corresponding legal responsibility.

As a professional decoration company, the decoration company should ensure that the decoration behavior is legal. Even if the plan of demolishing and changing the load-bearing wall is approved by the owner, it shall not be demolished without legal procedures, otherwise it shall bear corresponding compensation liability for its wrong behavior. In addition, the owners' assembly or the owners' committee has the right to require the actor to stop the infringement, remove the obstruction, eliminate the danger, restore the original state and compensate the losses in accordance with laws, regulations and management regulations.

legal ground

People's Republic of China (PRC) Civil Code

Article 272 The owner has the right to possess, use, profit from and dispose of the exclusive part of his building. The owner's exercise of rights shall not endanger the safety of the building or damage the legitimate rights and interests of other owners.

Article 286 In the second and third paragraphs, the owners' assembly or the owners' committee has the right to demand the actor to stop the infringement, remove the obstruction, remove the danger, restore to the original state and compensate for the losses in accordance with the laws, regulations and management regulations for acts that damage the legitimate rights and interests of others, such as dumping garbage at will, discharging pollutants or noise, raising animals illegally, building structures illegally, encroaching on passages and refusing to pay property fees.

If the owners or other actors refuse to perform relevant obligations, the parties concerned may report or complain to the relevant administrative departments, which shall deal with them according to law.

Article 287 The owner has the right to require the construction unit, the realty service enterprise or other managers and other owners to bear civil liability for acts that infringe upon their legitimate rights and interests.

Measures for the administration of interior decoration of residential buildings

Fifth residential interior decoration activities, prohibit the following acts:

(a) without the consent of the original design unit or the design unit with corresponding qualification grade, changing the main body and load-bearing structure of the building without authorization;

(2) Changing rooms or balconies without waterproof requirements into bathrooms and kitchens;

(3) expanding the original size of doors and windows of the load-bearing wall and removing the brick-concrete wall connected with the balcony;

(four) damage to the original energy-saving facilities of the house, reducing the energy-saving effect;

(five) other acts that affect the safety of building structure and use.

Lawyer's statement

The owner's unauthorized removal of the load-bearing wall of the house not only violates the relevant agreement signed with the property management company, but also damages the legitimate rights and interests of the neighboring owners. If the circumstances and consequences are serious and endanger public safety, they can also bear criminal responsibility, as follows:

First, administrative responsibility, dismantling and changing load-bearing structures such as load-bearing walls without authorization, endangering the safety of buildings, may lead to cracks in the walls and even the danger of collapse of houses, and will face punishment from administrative organs, and be ordered to restore and strengthen the walls and bear corresponding expenses.

The second is civil liability. Based on the existence of the adjacent relationship, the owner dismantled the load-bearing wall of the house without authorization, which affected the safety of the house and damaged the structure of the house. This behavior has caused unlawful infringement to the neighboring owners and should bear the tort liability. Accordingly, the neighboring owners have the right to ask the owners to stop the infringement and restore the bearing state of the building wall according to law; In addition, the decoration owner should also bear the relevant expenses incurred by the neighboring owners in taking necessary repair measures to restore and make up for the damage caused by the demolition of the load-bearing wall.

Based on entrusted management, property management companies should bear the responsibility of poor management. Property management companies should be responsible to all owners for collecting property fees from them. Generally speaking, the property contract has the relevant content that the load-bearing wall should not be removed. Property management companies have the responsibility and obligation to stop the owners from dismantling the load-bearing wall, which is an obvious violation, and should not condone this behavior. Otherwise, this behavior is actually an infringement on the rights and interests of other neighboring owners. Therefore, the neighboring owners also have the right to ask the property company to bear the responsibility according to the relevant property contract.

Third, criminal responsibility. Article 1 14 of China's criminal law stipulates: "Whoever sets fire, breaks water, explodes, poisons or destroys factories, mines, oil fields, ports, rivers, water sources, warehouses, houses, forests, farms, grain fields, pastures, important pipelines and public buildings by other dangerous methods." In other words, the consequences of dismantling the load-bearing wall at will not only bear civil liability, but also may violate the criminal law and be suspected of negligent crime of endangering public safety in a dangerous way, thus bearing criminal responsibility.

To sum up, the load-bearing wall is the wall that supports the weight of the upper floor, and it is an important part that determines the safety of the house and cannot be easily removed. If the wall in the house is to be demolished, professionals should be asked to confirm whether it is a load-bearing wall, and report it to the property management department for the record, and construction can only be started after approval by the relevant units and departments. Otherwise, you may face administrative punishment, bear high civil liability and even violate the criminal law.