Home Renovation Permits: Is Your Building ‘Publicly Accessible’?
Mr. Zhang, a resident on the 10th floor, simply wanted to remove the partition wall between his study and living room to create a popular open-concept space. He believed that since he was renovating ‘inside his own home,’ it was purely a matter of personal freedom. To his surprise, the building management immediately intervened, demanding he obtain an ‘interior renovation permit’ before proceeding. Mr. Zhang was bewildered: ‘My home isn’t a KTV or a movie theater, who is the ‘public’ here? Why should they interfere?’Meanwhile, Mrs. Lin, living on the 4th floor of an apartment building in a different district, had just completed a renovation converting a three-bedroom unit into a two-bedroom. No one approached her, and she hadn’t even…