On September 3, an accident occurred in the underground parking lot of an apartment building in Gyeonggi Province, where a sewage pipe burst and sewage poured down onto parked vehicles.
[Informant Damaged by Sewage: A sewage pipe burst right above the front of my car in the underground parking lot. Because the sewage splashed everywhere, the smell persists even after a car wash. When I look closely, the odor has soaked into the rubber moldings and other parts, so whenever I get near the car, I can smell a fishy odor like food waste.]
It was confirmed that the sewage seeped not only into the car's roof and bonnet, but also into the door gaps, rubber packing, and even inside the trunk.
This vehicle, valued at around 80 million won, suffered such damage just two weeks after delivery.
The owner went through multiple car washes, but the odor and contaminant residues would not go away, eventually forcing the owner to leave the vehicle at a service center.
The service center explained that a visual inspection showed cleaning the contaminants would cost around 1 million won, and if parts replacement is needed after a formal inspection, the repair costs could increase further.
The problem is the issue of liability.
[Apartment Management Office: The commercial building's pipe comes down to the parking lot and goes out above ground. Since it is a commercial pipe, the apartment complex does not manage it. The commercial side has to handle it. Since the commercial side has to take care of it, the management office has no position on the matter.]
The apartment management office claims that because the sewage pipe in question belongs to the commercial building, it is not the apartment's responsibility and the commercial side should handle it.
However, the commercial tenant side has refused to provide the landlord's contact information citing personal information protection, leaving the compensation procedure virtually stalled.
Experts advised attempting to contact the landlord through the tenant, and if there is no fulfillment, considering legal procedures such as payment orders, though cautious negotiation is necessary since repeated visits could be subject to criminal punishment.
(Producer: Lee Se-young, Video Editing: Lee Yu-jin, Video Source: News Hunters, Production: SBS Digital News)
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