It has been three years since the "Jitai Dazhi" collapse accident occurred in Zhongshan District, Taipei City in 2023. Shortly after the accident, the Taipei City Government's Urban Development Bureau established the "Jitai Dazhi Work Safety Accident Relief, Restoration and Resettlement Special Account", with a special fund of 100 million yuan transferred from Jitai Construction to pay 25 severely affected households a resettlement rent compensation of 1,600 yuan per square meter per month for 3 years. However, since the expiration of the three-year period this year, Jitai Construction has stopped remitting rent compensation, and as of June 30 this year, the balance of the resettlement account was less than 5.2 million yuan, causing the disaster-stricken households to fall into a food shortage crisis without warning. The disaster-stricken households submitted their complaints through 1999 many times, but only received repeated official replies of “further consideration”.
Disaster-stricken residents quoted Kitai General Manager Sun Weizhi's statement at the coordination meeting on September 7, 2026, revealing that during a meeting in the office of then Taipei City Deputy Mayor Li Sichuan three years ago, a tacit agreement had been reached with the city government that "the city will only take care of Kitai for three years." This made the disaster-stricken households question that it had been privately abandoned by the Taipei City Government as early as three years ago.
During the meeting, Jitai advocated that the rent should be settled in one lump sum after the three-year period, or that the rent should be reduced to the current market price of about 1,000 to 1,300 yuan per square meter. He also said that rent subsidies are generally not paid until demolition, and the previous three-year payment is already a discount. The affected residents and lawyers emphasized that this case is compensation for major industrial safety disasters.
Taipei City Councilor Chen Bingfu pointed out that the city government initially requested the establishment of a special account worth 100 million yuan for special use, and Mayor Chiang Wanan promised at the inquiry desk that the balance of the special account would not be refunded until the entire case was completed. Chen Bingfu analyzed that the supplementary agreement signed by the tenants and Jitai had a proviso, which stipulated that if no consensus was reached during the renegotiation after the expiration of three years, Jitai should abide by the original agreement and continue to pay the rent at the original standard of 1,600 yuan per square meter per month. Jitai's current unilateral suspension of rent obviously ignored the proviso in the agreement.
Taipei City Councilor Chen Yijun also criticized that the 100 million yuan special account established by Kitai in the past has long been used up. Once the three-year period is up, it unilaterally stopped the compensation and replaced it with a half subsidy under normal replacement conditions, which put the affected households who were forced to participate in the compensation into serious financial difficulties. The Taipei City Government seemed helpless in dealing with the breach of contract by the builders and failed to play its due role of public power and administrative supervision.
Twenty-two of the severely affected households signed settlement letters and reconstruction contracts with Jitai. However, because the preamble of the contract was specifically bound to "abandon the remaining claims," the contracted households lost the right to sue for compensation for damage to their houses. When Jitai defaulted and stopped paying rent, they could only appeal for "performance of the contract." Zuo Yiyou, a resident who graduated from the Law Department of National Chung Hsing University and worked in a law firm, saw through this contract trap and insisted on refusing to sign. He and the other two households adopted a legal strategy of "compensation is more completely separated from the owner", that is, the residual value of the house is claimed based on the appraised value, and the land is subject to legal rights transfer.
Chen Yijun added that Jitai was only willing to offer a compensation standard of 1.2 times, which is far lower than the 1.5 to 2 times that is common in civil collapses. Moreover, the damaged houses have not yet been repaired, so the residents naturally cannot accept the settlement. Jitai has adopted a procrastinating attitude of "leaving it to judicial litigation for appraisal." In addition to the houses that suffered the most damage, neighboring houses that suffered serious damage were also uninhabitable due to severe leaks and mold. The water in the basements even had to be pumped out every day, making them disgustingly empty houses that no one cares about.
In addition, the local community belongs to the traditional railway ticket area of Lanying. Residents originally expected that Mayor Jiang Wanan would come in person to give a municipal report on the third anniversary of the accident. There was also a notice posted on the elevator. However, Jiang Wanan's schedule that day was changed to help the People's Party campaign headquarters platform. Zuo Yiyou couldn't help but question: "The election is very important, so where do you put the citizens?"
During the reconstruction period, Jitai even paved the remaining collapsed land with cement and converted it into a paid parking lot for public business without the consent of all landowners. Zuo Yi reported unlicensed business to 1999 many times, and the closure office responded "no business facts" many times. It was not until reporters personally drove into the parking lot to pay for interviews and reported that Ji Tai dismantled the profit-making equipment in the parking lot.
In response to the impasse over rent and resettlement, the Taipei City Government stated that on September 30, City Secretary-General Wang Yufen will convene Kitai Construction and the collapsed households to hold a second coordination meeting. The official document requires that Kitai Construction must appoint a "supervisor with decision-making power and representative power" to attend and propose substantive solutions. The Metropolitan Development Bureau stated that residential resettlement will not be interrupted until the renovation and reconstruction is completed. All the 11 households that originally rented the interim housing can renew their leases, and 14 households have not yet rented. The city government also provides the "Jihe Phase III Intermediate Housing" with a lower rent burden for sloping households in need to apply for move-in. As for the three households that have not yet settled, since both parties have entered into litigation proceedings, the city government will respect the judicial judgment and continue to urge Jitai to take responsibility.
