A RESIDENT in a Longgang estate pressed charges against her neighbors after they transformed public aisles into private balconies, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Tuesday.

    The resident, surnamed Wang, said that she had bought a new apartment in the estate in 2014, but she was surprised to find that her neighbors on the same floor had made the public aisles into their own private balconies when her family moved into their new home in August last year.

    There are four apartments on each floor of the buildings, and there is a 12-square-meter aisle near two of the apartments, which are separated from the other two by a fire door.

    According to the estate’s property management firm, over 100 owners of the aisle-proximal apartments had transformed the aisles into private balconies to place shoe cabinets, sinks or bonsais.

    Wang said she failed to reach a settlement with her neighbors. “They said that the estate’s sales associates told them that the public aisle belonged to them, but then they said that the decorators of their apartments had transformed the aisles without taking orders from them.” She said her neighbors had threatened to make it hard for her if she didn’t stay out of it.

    Wang failed to settle the problem after making complaints to the property management office, the subdistrict office and even the city’s housing and construction bureau. She decided to sue her neighbors in a Longgang court. The case will be heard March 27.

    (Zhang Yang)