After a three-year stand-off, a couple in Chongqing has finally vacated its house to be relocated in another part of town. Yang Wu and Wu Ping refused to move because the compensation offered was not enough to start up a restaurant elsewhere. Relocating a restaurant owner to an apartment may give him a roof above his head, but is also robbing him of his livelihood. The developer excavated a large construction pit, leaving the house standing on top of a ten meters high man-made hill and cutting off the water and electricity supply. The property became known as “the nail house”.
The couple was actually saying that nobody could touch their private property. It is a testcase for the new property law, which will come into force on October 1. However, a distinction has to be made here. Real estate developers do not have the right to demolish the houses of citizens just because they want to build a glitzy shopping center or office tower. But if the local government decides that the property has to be vacated, it can of course go to the courts to get an order, provided sufficient compensation is paid.
This procedure may work in countries were businesses, local governments and the courts are relatively independent. But in China, it is very difficult to get this thing right. All too often, developers, local governments and courts are all working together, with a lot of bribes changing hands. Ordinary citizens are the losers.
Finally, the nail house owners accepted compensation. This nail house may be gone, but a lot of others are still standing.
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