[Exclusive] Changwon City Issues Sudden Eviction Order Over a Single Complaint?

Masan Hoewon District Office Requests Voluntary Demolition from Elderly Living Alone

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporters Se-ryeong Lee, Jong-gu Song, Yoon-jung Jo] “How can they tell us to leave suddenly without even taking a look first?”

The so-called ‘Heungboga’ echoed in Yangdeok-dong, Masanhwoe-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam.

This is because residents who have lived in their homes for over 30 years received eviction orders on the grounds that their houses are unauthorized buildings.

A resident A living behind a commercial building in Yangdeok-dong recently said they received an order from the Masanhwoe-gu Office’s Safety and Construction Department to voluntarily demolish their home.

According to the investigation, the Safety and Construction Department, which received complaints, posted voluntary demolition warning notices on each household.

Voluntary Demolition Warning Notice Posted on Unauthorized Building.
Photo by Lee Se-ryeong

Most of the residents living in the unauthorized buildings behind the commercial buildings are elderly living alone.

They suffer from physical difficulties such as fractures and cerebral hemorrhages, and since they have lost contact with their families or have almost no visitors, they sustain their lives through supplies, food, cleaning, and medical volunteer services provided by the church in the commercial building.

An elderly resident living here appealed, “Instead of support from local government, the church took care of us, but now I have no idea where or how I should live.”

“It doesn’t make sense to tell us to leave just because a complaint came in after decades of silence,” they said. “The landowner nearby started demolition work, causing daily noise and dust, which is distressing, and I am always anxious that my house might be torn down suddenly.”

A commercial tenant B said, “I have been settled in this commercial area for six years, but I have never seen a warning or notice posted in this neighborhood, and the elderly say they never received any either,” adding, “I don’t understand the mindset of the officials who suddenly want to handle this swiftly without any prior interest in whether people live here.”

A Safety and Construction Department official said, “We didn’t know there were elderly living alone, and when we went to post the demolition notice, we explained the situation to young men living in the two-story houses, but after that, we did not have contact with the residents.”

Another official stated, “Since a complaint was filed, we cannot avoid fact-finding. We recently sent restoration notices twice to unauthorized buildings that had received permits but had their road occupancy permits canceled, but we had not sent any notices in the past five years.”

The head of the Safety and Construction Department said, “Even if the buildings are unauthorized, we cannot demolish them immediately; we follow administrative procedures such as prior notice and take action only after forming consensus through resident persuasion,” adding, “The warning notices were probably also posted by the Disaster Prevention Team.”

He explained, “Since the buildings were constructed on national and public property, the notices were meant to request voluntary demolition, not to indicate that administrative enforcement would be carried out.”