[Sportschosun Reporter Jang Jong-ho] A bizarre accident occurred in China when interior contractors confused the floor number and ended up demolishing the wrong apartment entirely.
According to Chinese media outlets including Sina Finance, renovation work was recently carried out at Apartment 403 in a residential complex in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
Before the work began, the site foreman in charge called the workers and told them, "I left the key in front of the front door, so just take it and go in," to make the job easier.
However, the owner of Apartment 303 in the same building also had a habit of hiding a spare key under the doormat.
The problem was that the two apartments were almost identical in layout, each measuring about 50 square meters, and their interior arrangements were also very similar.
When the workers arrived, they did not properly check the floor number. After finding a key under the doormat on the third floor, they mistook the unit for the apartment scheduled for renovation.
They then opened the door and immediately began demolition work inside.
By the time the work was finished, Apartment 303 had been reduced to little more than its bare structure. Furniture, wall and ceiling finishes, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and interior decorations were all removed, leaving the entire home essentially empty.
The owner of Apartment 303, who suffered the unexpected damage, immediately reported the incident to police. Police and local community officials later stepped in to mediate between the owner, the site foreman, and the workers, but disputes over responsibility continued.
The foreman said, "I clearly explained that the work site was Apartment 403, and there is also a call recording," shifting responsibility to the workers.
The workers, meanwhile, protested their innocence, saying, "Before the demolition, we checked the interior layout by phone, and the foreman described it in a way that matched the actual situation, so we had no reason to suspect anything." The damaged homeowner countered that he could not accept a request to reduce the compensation amount.
As the conflict grew, the local community asked the court to mediate. The judge visited the site and later determined that the workers had been negligent in failing to properly confirm the address and apartment number before starting the job. The judge also found that the foreman had not fulfilled his responsibility to verify the work site and ensure safety. At the same time, the judge urged the homeowner to consider reasonable compensation, noting that the other side had not intentionally damaged the property.
After mediation, the foreman agreed to bear most of the damage, and the workers also accepted part of the compensation. The three parties then signed a final settlement agreement.
Netizens reacted by saying, "It's unbelievable that they didn't even check the apartment number properly," "Leaving a spare key under the doormat is dangerous," and "You couldn't trust a company like this to do renovation work."
Jang Jong-ho, bellho@sportschosun.com
