The Taipei City Government yesterday announced plans for the forcible removal of illegal rooftop constructions (違建).
“Demolition is only a means to an end of ensuring that residents have a safe place to live,” Department of Welfare Commissioner Hsu Li-min (許立民) said.
He met with Department of Urban Development, Department of Social Work and Department of Legal Affairs commissioners to give his support for the implementation of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) promise to resolve 226 cases of illegal constructions on city rooftops.
Photo: CNA
The measures announced yesterday focus on preventing the rental of such structures, while protecting tenants.
The administration has promised not to tear down the vast majority of the structures in question so long as owners reduce the number of “usage units” to two bedrooms. Temporary housing and subsidies are to be provided to any disadvantaged residents who are forced out.
Ko made his promise to tackle a backlog of cases of large illegal rooftop structures after a tenant was burned to death in one such structure last month. Although the structure had been ordered demolished, the building’s owner refused to tear it down.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It is extremely dangerous to take an illegal structure and divide it with partition walls for rental,” Taipei Construction Management Office Director Kao Wen-ting (高文婷) said. “We believe that such structures should be demolished first.”
She added that illegal structures on rooftops are particularly dangerous because their location makes it extremely difficult for occupants to escape in the event of fire.
Forcibly demolishing the constructions would move the department into difficult legal territory, due to the need to force entry if residents refuse to comply.
While the government has the authority to force entry into a building for inspection purposes under the Architecture Act (建築法), the law does not grant that authority for purposes of demolition, Kao said.
She added that the department’s inability to levy fines against illegal structures continues to hamper efforts to force removal, but stated that the danger of rooftop structures would provide adequate legal standing for forcible demolition as long as the department fully protects any private property contained in the structures.
While the Construction Management Office declined to provide full figures on the total number of illegal structures in the city, the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister paper, reported last month that there are more than 80,000, including 7,000 rooftop constructions.
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