Since the policy of Chinese housing institution reform in 1991, the extent of housing market in China increases gradually. In recent years, with the rapid development and growth of housing market in Chinese, repair work for the condominium, especially the common part has been an issue for the property management. In addition, since condominiums is provided and managed by various actors, there are several agents nowadays.
The purposes of this study are: (1) To clarify the legal structure about the repair work of condominium in China. (2) To clarify the characteristics of resident participation in repair work promoted by different agents based on the practical cases. (3) To clarify the difference between the legal structure and the practical cases. Finally, we would like to propose some suggestions for improving the resident participation in repair work for condominium in China.
Through analyzing the legal structure, since the year of 1983, the related laws about repair work include responsibility of stakeholders, fundraising and construction. The 3 practical cases are managed by 3 different agents including Construction Company (developer), Property Company and Community (社区). These 3 cases have 4 phases in common including: (1) Initiation, (2) Fundraising, (3) Planning, (4) Construction; Resident participation in these 4 phases are different in each case.
Our analysis has revealed that:(1) Initiation of the project are mainly proposed by residents, however, the decision is mainly made by agent. (2) The ideal condition of fundraising is to use maintenance fee according to legal system. However, only 1 case that agent assist residents to establish owners' committee in order to use this fund. The others cases apply the government subsidy or use the co-investment from both resident and agent. (3) Planning phase is basically managed and organized by agent. Residents respond their suggestion by questionnaire in the case of condominium managed by government; private agent takes residents' suggestion arbitrarily. (4) Construction process is imperfect compared with legal process and system. The resident participation is only receiving notification passively without timely feedback.
In order to promote the resident participation in repair work for condominium in the future, we propose some suggestions for the legal institution reform in China. (1) To raise the awareness of residents about repair work and property right. (2) Meanwhile, in order to increase the use of maintenance fee, simplifying the process of application is sufficient. (3) To educate and guide residents how to make plan with the support of specialist.(4) To improve timely feedback in construction process for resident. Finally, we consider that future study might focus on other point of view in resident participation in repair work of condominium such as the social-economical structure of residents and the case comparison between Japan and China.
