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Woman sues over sea sand walls

Taipei resident "Ms Tang" displays pieces of concrete that she said had fallen off her apartment in Neihu. Tang held a press conference at the Taipei City Council yesterday accusing real estate agency Pacific Rehouse of selling her the apartment without telling her that it had been built with sea sand. The real estate agency denied her charges. PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

A Taipei woman alleged yesterday that a well-known real estate agency had sold her an apartment built with sea sand without explaining this fact to her clearly during the transaction process.

The real estate agency, however, said the allegations were untrue.

While most concrete buildings are constructed using river sand, those built with poorly processed sea sand may be dangerous since chlorine ions from residual salt contained in the sand can gradually eat into the concrete and steel bars of the building's structure.

The woman, who preferred to be identified as Ms Tang, was accompanied by two New Party city councilors, Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) and Chin Li-fang (秦儷舫), at the press conference held at the city council yesterday morning.

Tang said that she would like the real estate agency, Pacific Rehouse (太平洋房屋), to annul the contract and to compensate her for losses.

According to the Consumer Protection Law (消費者保護法), Tang is entitled to a punitive compensation of one to three times the price of the apartment if the real estate agency is convicted of having failed to tell Tang about the condition of the house during the trading process.

"They told me that I have to spend only NT$7 million for a 50-ping apartment because times were tough and it's an 18-year-old house, but they didn't tell me that it was built with sea sand."

`Ms. Tang,' buyer of apartment built with sea sand-mixed cement

Tang had spent NT$7 million on the eighth floor apartment in Neihu District. In other words, she is eligible for as much as NT$21 million in compensation.

If that is the case, the certified real estate agent will be found guilty of fraud and sentenced to up to five years in prison according to the Criminal Code.

The owner of the agency may also face a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$300,000 if the agent is not a certified one.

According to Tang, she bought the apartment on April 14 from Pacific Rehouse but suspected that her place had been built with sea sand when she discovered the peeled-off ceiling and rusted steel bars.

Tang then asked a civil engineers association to conduct a survey on the construction material of the building. The report concluded that the chlorine ion content of the house was over 0.42kg per cubic meter, or about 1.4 times the national standard of 0.3kg per cubic meter.

"They told me that I have to spend only NT$7 million for a 50-ping apartment because the times were tough and it's an 18-year-old house, but they didn't tell me that it was built with sea sand," Tang said.

However, Pacific Rehouse dis-missed Tang's allegations.

"We did provide Ms Tang with the evaluation report on the chlorine ion content of the house. We also told her straight-out that the test results exceed national standards," said Yu Ho-ching (俞禾青), chief of the public relations division at Pacific Rehouse. "There's no negligence whatsoever on our part."

Yu added that the company had taken the initiative to ask the former owner to hire the civil engineers association to conduct the survey on the house.

Yu said that the company will continue to negotiate with Tang.

"We've shown the utmost sincerity in trying to solve the problem. We're still in the negotiation process and have not yet reached any consensus," she said.
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