INTRUSIVE?Residents are divided over whether the building code is too strict, but the Public Works Department stands behind the restrictions, despite complaints

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 03, 2015
By: Lai Hsiao-tung and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Cluttering public stairway landings with shoe cabinets, bicycles or other objects is a serious building code violation with a maximum fine of NT$200,000, the New Taipei City Government’s Public Works Department said.

Citing the Condominium Administration Act (公寓大廈管理條例), Public Works Department section head Chen Te-ju (陳德儒) said the regulations require that the common area of an apartment or condominium be free of any obstruction.

The law stipulates that residents of an apartment building “may not store miscellaneous objects… that obstruct passage in private passages, firebreaks, fire escape alleys, open space for the public, empty recesses, stair landings, common hallways or air raid shelters.”

Chen said that from January to September, the Public Works Department issued 664 warnings to citizens who had violated the building code by obstructing spaces designated as escape routes with objects and furniture.     [FULL  STORY]