In the Huoshan County of Lu’an City, Anhui Province, China, homeowners in a residential area privately dug a roughly 300-square-meter basement, causing cracks in all 32 units of the building. The homeowners discovered the issue in August and reported it to the relevant authorities, but a proper solution has yet to be reached.
According to the “Public Concerns” disclosure, the homeowners of a storefront unit in the Jingxiulan Bay residential area dug a roughly 300-square-meter basement. During construction, the storefront units were enclosed with fences over 3 meters high, excavators were used during the day inside, and at night, workers secretly transported the soil outside in trucks. After discovering the situation on August 17, a resident returning home during the day noticed the activity.
The affected building is 9 stories high with a total of 32 units, with storefront units on the first and second floors facing the street. Currently, 24 households have moved into the building.
The action of the storefront homeowners in digging the basement privately has caused significant damage to the entire building. The appraisal report provided by the building’s homeowners shows that the building’s safety rating is assessed as “Cu” grade. Public records show that “Cu” grade indicates that the building’s load-bearing capacity is insufficient to meet safety requirements, and continued cracks could erode the rebar, making it vulnerable to collapse under external forces such as earthquakes.
On October 13, Ms. Bao, a homeowner living on the top floor of the 9th floor, told “Public Concerns” that none of the walls are intact, all have cracks, horizontally, vertically, in an “eight” shape. The marble above her window sill has snapped off, allowing rainwater to seep into the interior.
Ms. Bao expressed her concerns that due to the fear of collapse, the government provided a 10-day resettlement allowance (150 yuan/person/day), the cost of which was borne by the implicated homeowners, but there has been no further follow-up.
She expressed her helplessness, stating that the private digging of the basement by the homeowners was discovered in August, yet a satisfactory resolution has not been reached.
In response to this, the representative of the property rights entity in the residential area, Mr. Qin, stated that the property management does not have enforcement authority and, therefore, cannot intervene. Relevant departments have already started follow-up work on the matter.
Following the exposure of the incident, it quickly sparked strong attention from netizens. Netizens commented, “Digging 300 square meters, only realizing when the walls crack, what is the property management doing? Sleeping? Turning a blind eye? Or is this household particularly audacious?”. “The property management is shifting blame again, have no enforcement authority, cannot intervene? Then what is the property management for?”. “The ground floor is a storefront, a result of property management’s commercial activities, think about it carefully.”
Netizens criticized, “The property management is all in cahoots.” “Property management only collects fees without doing work. The residents above my unit demolished the load-bearing wall, causing water leakage in my home, and said it was approved by the property management!” “I remember there was a fitness center before that dug through a load-bearing wall, and the entire building became uninhabitable.”
In recent years, similar incidents of private basement digging have been occurring frequently across China.
In January 2023, a homeowner in Shanghai privately dug a basement to create a wine cellar, leading to settlement issues and wall cracks in the building. After assessment, the level of destruction of the house was classified as Grade 5, with an imminent risk of collapse, forcing neighboring residents to evacuate urgently.
In April 2024, the Beijing Jingluzhou Property Management Co., Ltd. dug underground tunnels under the guise of repairing underground pipelines and attempted to open a door hole at a load-bearing wall in the underground garage, resulting in damage to the underground garage’s load-bearing structure.
In October 2022, homeowners in a residential area in Nanjing privately excavated the courtyard soil and damaged the underground exterior walls of the building, causing a mix of underground water and river water to leak into the underground parking lot, resulting in severe safety hazards and property losses, and so on.