Taipei City Construction Management Office

To ensure a safe living environment for citizens, Taipei City Construction Management Office has since August 1st, 2015, sent notifications to owners of illegally constructed commercial kitchens to make improvements before September 30th. However, due to Typhoon Dujuan, the Office has agreed to extend the improvement deadline to October 11th. Forced demolition shall be carried out from October 13th onwards if improvements are not made by the deadline. Owners of illegally constructed commercial kitchens said that Typhoon Dujuan made it more difficult to hire workers because the restoration and repair of residential homes caused a shortage of workers in the aftermath of the Typhoon. Therefore, the required improvement may be delayed and could not be completed by September 30th. In addition, the Director of the Office, Chen Huang-Cheng, said that after Typhoon Dujuan, the entire demolition team was mobilized to handle damaged structures or iron sheets which were blown away during the Typhoon. The priority of the team is to assist the government in the post-disaster reconstruction, removing structures that affect public safety and hinder public transport, so as to swiftly restore the City’s environment. Based on the factors listed above, the Office agrees to extend the commercial kitchens improvement deadline by 10 days. The owners shall complete the improvements by October 11th, or the Office will carry out forced demolition starting October 13th.Director Chen said that there are currently 421 cases of illegally constructed commercial kitchens. As on September 30th, 2015, 388 cases completed their improvements, while 33 cases are still in progress. Director Chen urges the owners who have not completed the improvements, to complete them before October 11th in order to ensure public safety. The Office’s demolition team will carry out the inspection on October 12th, and publish the names of the shops which have not yet made improvements. From October 13th onwards, forced demolition shall be carried out on these shops and demolition fees shall be paid by the owners.