In front of the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong in Dongcheng District, there is a gold-lettered signboard of "Beijing Historical Building", but the situation in the courtyard is not as glamorous as it seems. Last year, some residents reported that the sewer pipes in the courtyard were blocked, but what the community staff did not expect was that this "small sore" exposed many historical problems in the courtyard - not only the sewer pipes are often blocked, the water pipes are also insufficient, the residents' houses leak rain, and some even the walls are tilted and deformed, and the doors cannot be closed......
Who is the property right unit of the courtyard? In the face of the intertwined historical problems, how can the small courtyard be renovated and upgraded? In the past year, media reporters have witnessed the process of receiving and handling complaints in the streets of the local intersection and the Fuxue community. At the end of this month, the troubled compound is about to usher in a "rebirth".
origin
The poor drainage has exposed many remaining problems
When the community staff came to learn about the problem of clogged sewer pipes, the 19 residents living in the compound talked about other problems in the yard, and each of them sounded like a trivial matter.
"The lack of running water has been going on for 30 years, and it has not been resolved. Residents said that in this large courtyard, the problem of water difficulty in the backyard is the deepest, cooking and brushing dishes, can only keep the faucet on, sometimes a few drops of water, sometimes there is a "trickle", and the washing of dishes can basically be completed after 10 o'clock in the evening. It is even more difficult to take a bath and do laundry, and Ms. Zhao, who lives in the deepest household in the yard, has become accustomed to returning to her parents' house to wash clothes every week.
The water supply in the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong is not smooth, and residents only have a "trickle" when they turn on the faucet.
Before the community staff could finish recording the two problems of poor water supply and discharge, other residents went on to talk about the leakage of the house. "There are a lot of old houses that leak rain, call for repair, and the maintenance workers will lay a tarpaulin, but the symptoms are not cured. ”
There is an antique attic in the courtyard, and residents say that the gold-lettered signboard of "Beijing Historical Building" in front of the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong is hung because of this attic. "Seven years ago, bricks and tiles began to fall and houses were smashed, and now the walls are cracking even more. ”
Hearing that he was talking about the house, Mr. An, a resident, was busy reflecting that his family lived in the middle of the yard, not only did it leak rain, but the wall of the house had been inclined to the aisle of the yard, "The land in front of our house, in the dead of night, I could hear the sound of running water underground, it must be that the water pipe was leaking, which washed out the foundation of the house." As soon as they heard Mr. An say the word "tap water", the other residents pulled the conversation back to the lack of tap water...... Gradually, the records of the community workers became a mess.
"Let's reflect the same, and it will definitely be difficult to solve the problems when they are mixed together. Community workers rushed to reassure the residents, but the residents, who had been troubled by the problem for years, simply did not heed such advice. "How can it be mixed together? Tracing back to the root cause is a problem, and the property rights unit does not act!"
It turned out that the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong belonged to public housing, and like many old communities, it used to be the dormitory of some units. Many of the residents who live here are veterans of the health care system, and the residents are actually tenants of the houses. "We rented a house in a public house with a compound in disrepair. In the past, we even had to pay for the water and house repairs, can we not be wronged?"
On the one hand, there is dissatisfaction with the condition of the courtyard, and on the other hand, there are complaints about the property rights of the house. Liu Zhenghang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Fuxue Community, looked at the frowning brows of the residents and couldn't help but sigh that it was not something that could be done in a day or two to completely solve the problem of Dongwang Hutong Courtyard.
Affirmation
Who is the "landlord" of the small courtyard?
In 2023, in order to solve various problems in Dongwang Hutong Courtyard, the territorial Jiaodaokou Street "whistled", and the Dongcheng District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Committee, Urban Management Committee, Water Supply Company, Drainage Group and other units came to report, including the "property rights unit" of the house, the Dongcheng District Health Commission. The initial idea of the negotiation was that, in view of the many problems left over from the history of the court, it was hoped that the relevant parties would take the initiative to move forward and put aside the dispute to protect people's livelihood. However, with the deepening of exchanges, it is found that if the problems left over from history are not clarified, it will be difficult to move forward with the work. All parties agree that whether it is the repair of the house or the renovation of the water and sewage pipes in the courtyard, the property right unit of the house should be responsible, but the biggest difficulty is that it is impossible to confirm that the Dongcheng District Health Commission is the property right unit of this yard. "This is how it has been inherited historically, and we and the residents have acquiesced, but there is no evidence. The Dongcheng District Health Commission said helplessly.
In order to find out who the "landlord" is, the Dongcheng District Health Commission has done a lot of work. Rummaging through historical materials found that there was no blueprint for the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong, and there was no clear handover record in the planning, and what was even more strange was that the houses in the entire courtyard did not have a house ownership certificate. When asked where the residents rented their houses back then, some of them said "Old Sixth Hospital", and some said the Old Health Bureau. What is the historical evolution of these two units? What is the relationship between these two units and the Dongcheng District Health Commission? What is the distribution of property rights of the two units in the entire courtyard? I can't find a clue for a while. In this regard, the reporter and the local street community began a long inquiry and combing.
How did the attic of Dongwang Hutong come about? There are different opinions about the historical origin, and it is difficult to verify it. But what is relatively clear is the property rights of the attic after the founding of New China. This actually led to a relationship with the famous doctor Mr. Yang Jisheng. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yang Jisheng was invited to Beijing, and in his life, the reporter found such a sentence: many patients came to his home for medical treatment.
Where is Mr. Yang Jisheng's home in Beijing? After checking the information and verifying with the old neighbors, we learned that Yang Jisheng lived in the attic of the Dongwang Hutong courtyard in Beijing at that time. After having this historical clue, the reporter continued to inquire deeply and found that the attic was assigned to Yang Jisheng, although there was no house ownership certificate due to historical reasons, but the clear management and use unit was the hospital where Yang Jisheng was located, namely: the Sixth Hospital of the Central People's Government directly under the Ministry of Health. The mention of the "Old Sixth Courtyard" finally surfaced. According to the data, the hospital was taken over by the Beijing Municipal People's Government in 1952 and named "Beijing Sixth Hospital", and in 1959, the Municipal Health Bureau decided to hand over the hospital to the district government.
In addition to the attic, there are many bungalows in the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong, and these houses are rented out, and the residents have provided strong evidence - the lease contract of Beijing's public housing. Some of them are stamped with the official seal of the Administrative Department of the Dongcheng District Health Bureau, and the other part has the official seal of the Housing Management Center of the Dongcheng District Health and Family Planning Commission, which can be regarded as the predecessor of the Dongcheng District Health Commission.
At this point, the "past and present life" of Dongwang Hutong Courtyard has finally been sorted out, and the Dongcheng District Health Commission is strictly speaking the actual management and use unit of the courtyard. According to the legal experts consulted by the street and community, from the perspective of the lease contract of the house, the Dongcheng District Health Commission and the residents are respectively the parties A and B of the contract, so the Dongcheng District Health Commission enjoys the same rights and obligations as the property rights unit, including the management and repair of the house.
push forward
The renovation of water pipelines has repeatedly solved problems
The problem of confirming rights has finally been solved. Regarding the overall improvement of the courtyard, including the renovation of water supply and water supply and the repair of houses, the Dongcheng District Health Commission and the subordinate streets jointly took the lead to raise funds from various sources. However, at the beginning of this year, a bigger historical problem was placed in front of us, and the renovation of the water pipes in the courtyard could not be carried out.
Back in 2005, the courtyard of Beijing bungalow ushered in the renovation of one household and one meter of tap water. In 2006, this work was implemented from the pilot to the whole city, and by 2017, the transformation was basically popularized. However, the renovation of one household and one table in the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong has just fallen. As for why it was left behind, it is another "headless case", and the fine pipe community where the courtyard is located has long been split into three communities, including the Fuxue community. Whether you ask the residents or the elderly in the past, no one can tell what is going on.
Liu Zhenghang, secretary of the community party committee, calculated the total amount of water bills actually owed by residents through meter reading.
"Because of the aging pipes, the tap water supply is not available, residents have stopped paying water bills since October 2015, and now the renovation of water pipes must achieve one meter per household, and the premise of changing the meter is that residents have to make up the outstanding water bills. Liu Zhenghang said that this problem is very tricky, because the water company provided the total amount of water bills owed by Dongwang Hutong Hospital, but the residents also have their own "small account books" in their hands, and the two "account books" do not match, a difference of more than 20,000 yuan. "Residents don't recognize the water company's account, and the water company doesn't have the authority to reduce or reduce it, so how can we negotiate?"
According to the statistics of the water company, from October 2015 to February 2024, Dongwang Hutong Hospital owed a total of 100 months of water bills, totaling more than 66,000 yuan. However, residents believe that the outstanding fees are more than 44,000 yuan. What makes people curious is that since there is no one household and one meter, how did the residents calculate the more than 40,000 yuan?
Residents told reporters that in the past, there was no water meter in the yard, and the water bill was shared equally every month. Some households have more people and some have fewer people, and the equal sharing is not fair. So later, everyone installed a water meter in their homes, and the meter was read and counted every month. "This is at most a 'private table', which is not the same thing as the current public statement of one household and one table. ”
Residents pulled out old yellowed notebooks showing how much each family had paid for their water bills over the decades, and the records were mostly clear, and they were indeed up to October 2015. In order to find out how much water the residents used after that, each household showed up the "old antique" again. The old water meters that are still walking have a strong sense of age, Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, various brands, different systems. Liu Zhenghang took the community staff to the door, wiped the soil and removed the rust for these old water meters, and then began to read the meters like the old man. "Now the total number of words on these tables minus what residents have paid before October 2015 is more than 44,000 yuan in outstanding water bills. ”
What is the problem with the fact that the 20,000 yuan cannot be reconciled? Residents said that it is precisely because the water pipes in the courtyard are aging and cannot be repaired that the underground water pipes must have been running on water. "The tap water that ran away is not for residents, and we can't pay this part of the money, so we should let the property rights unit pay it, because it was caused by their mismanagement. ”
In order to find the basis for running water from the tap water pipeline, the community staff took advantage of the late night to come to the Dongwang Hutong courtyard again. In the dead of night, there is no water in the yard, but the general meter of tap water in the yard is still running rapidly. In the recent new round of discussions, both the residents and the management and use units of the courtyard are admired for the community's unremitting work attitude, so that the community has more say in the mediation of conflicts between the two sides. According to the negotiation, residents paid more than 44,000 yuan in arrears of tap water bills, and the rest of the water charges were borne by the Dongcheng District Health Commission.
Seeing that the dust was about to fall, I didn't expect a new problem to arise. Some residents reacted that there was still a problem with the more than 44,000 yuan. "Before October 2015, we were almost all paying the water bill as usual, but the water pipe leaked for I don't know how many years, and there must have been unjust money that should not have been paid before. ”
It is unknown how many years of water leaked before, and to what extent, this money really cannot be calculated, and the problem has reached an impasse again. After several discussions, the relevant parties made reasonable assumptions backwards. Liu Zhenghang stayed up for another night, and through a set of complex calculations, he resorted out the money that each household should pay. In the end, the water bills that residents need to pay are discounted by 85% on the basis of more than 44,000 yuan, and the difference in the discount is made up by the Dongcheng District Health Commission.
progress
The renovation of the compound is being completed in phases
After a year of "peeling off the cocoon", the historical problems of Dongwang Hutong Courtyard were smoothed out one by one, and the knots in the hearts of residents were gradually untied. On March 27, the renovation and upgrading project of the courtyard was officially launched. As soon as the ground was opened, a finger-thick column of water erupted from the ground, and the pipes had already cracked. The pipes ran out of water, the surrounding soil was washed out all year round, and some areas of the underground have been hollowed out.
On the morning of April 3, the reporter came to the courtyard of Dongwang Hutong again, where the workers worked overtime, and the infrastructure of the courtyard changed significantly. The new water pipes have been laid and are ready to be connected to the pipes in the homes. Some houses in the courtyard with obvious safety hazards have been reinforced, and the walls of Mr. An's house have been strengthened and "straightened" again.
On March 27, the renovation and upgrading project of Dongwang Hutong Courtyard was officially launched.
Liu Zhenghang said that by mid-to-late April, this round of courtyard renovation and upgrading projects will be completed. In the preliminary investigation, the housing management unit also found that 9 houses in the courtyard had rain leakage problems, and after the renovation and upgrading project was completed, the leaking houses would be repaired intensively. "Because the stacking and construction space in the alley is limited, we chose to do it separately. There is still some time from late April to the flood season, just in time to solve the problem of rain leakage. ”
At the end of the interview, the resident took out an old notepad that had previously recorded the water bill, and asked if the notebook would be useless and could be thrown away when the project was over. Liu Zhenghang said, don't throw it away, this book is very precious and must be kept well. "Just like the attic in our yard, it also records a valuable history and witnesses the changes of the old courtyard. ”
Source: Beijing Daily
Text: Jing Yiming
Photo: Jing Yiming, BRTV, Beijing Satellite TV