Collapse has killed 20! Quanzhou hotel repeatedly built and renovated illegally.
The building collapse of Xinjia Hotel in Licheng District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, which occurred on March 7, has drawn widespread attention, and rescue efforts are still ongoing.
According to interviews by Beijing News reporters, former tenants below the hotel stated that the building was about seven stories high, with floors 2 to 6 used for foot baths and hotel operations. In 2017, renovation work was carried out, converting the hotel floor's lobby into guest rooms. Media reports also indicated that the preliminary cause of the collapse was related to load-bearing issues (though the specific cause awaits further investigation reports). The interviewed tenant said that during the hotel or owner's renovation construction, the windows of the ground-floor shops were twisted and deformed, prompting the tenants to move out.
Shang Yong, Vice Minister and Party Member of the Ministry of Emergency Management, pointed out that as of 9:00 AM on March 10, 61 people had been rescued through all-out efforts, with 20 dead and 41 injured. Ten people remain trapped, and rescue operations are still intense. "Preliminary understanding shows this is a work safety liability accident. The hotel was illegally constructed and repeatedly renovated illegally, exposing local authorities' failure to fulfill work safety supervision responsibilities, leading to long-standing safety risks and blind spots. This bloody lesson is shocking. Once rescue operations are basically complete, a comprehensive investigation will be launched to quickly determine the cause and strictly hold those responsible accountable according to laws and regulations, including legal liability." (The above is sourced from People's Daily, Beijing News, and other public online channels.)
Is it legal for property owners to renovate their property without authorization?
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm statedAccording to Article 71 of the Property Law: Property owners have the right to possess, use, benefit from, and dispose of the exclusive parts of their buildings. When exercising their rights, property owners must not endanger the safety of the building or harm the lawful rights and interests of other property owners.
Based on this regulation, property owners must not arbitrarily alter the structure, appearance, designated use, function, or layout of the building within the property scope, nor may they illegally chisel, dismantle, add to, or construct on load-bearing walls, beams, columns, slabs, or balconies inside or outside the building.
How is sentencing determined for causing major safety accidents due to unauthorized structural modifications? What legal liabilities arise from construction safety accidents resulting in casualties?
According to Article 134, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the crime of major liability accidents refers to acts that violate relevant safety management regulations during production or operations, thereby causing major casualties or other serious consequences.
The subjects of this crime are generally summarized as employees of factories, mines, forest farms, construction enterprises, or other enterprises or institutions.
Classification of major workplace safety accident crimes:
According to the "Regulations on Reporting, Investigation and Handling of Production Safety Accidents," production safety accidents are generally classified into four levels based on casualties or direct economic losses. Specifically:
1. Particularly major accidents: those causing 30 or more deaths, or 100 or more serious injuries (including acute industrial poisoning, same below), or direct economic losses of 100 million yuan or more.
2. Major accidents: those causing 10 to 29 deaths, or 50 to 99 serious injuries, or direct economic losses between 50 million and 100 million yuan.
3. Relatively major accidents: those causing 3 to 9 deaths, or 10 to 49 serious injuries, or direct economic losses between 10 million and 50 million yuan.
4. General accidents: those causing fewer than 3 deaths, or fewer than 10 serious injuries, or direct economic losses below 10 million yuan.
Those who commit this crime shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention; if the circumstances are especially flagrant, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years.
Especially flagrant circumstances are an aggravating factor for this crime. Here, especially flagrant circumstances refer to causing a relatively large number of casualties, or causing particularly heavy losses to public or private property, or causing extremely adverse social impact, among others.
Therefore, unauthorized modification of a house may harm the lawful rights and interests of others, and may even involve illegal or criminal activities.
Image source: public online channels; if infringement occurs, please delete.
