Do Urban Management Authorities Regulate Container Houses?

Urban management authorities will intervene if container houses are not approved or are modified and placed in violation of regulations.

Cases Recognized as Illegal Construction

• Unauthorized Residential Modification: Modifying a container to have residential features, such as water and electricity supply, opening doors and windows, or installing air conditioning, without approval from relevant authorities and without going through any procedures, is considered the same as constructing a building without a permit and is illegal. For example, the owner of a restaurant in Lvxiang Town, Jinshan District placed a container behind the building as temporary housing for employees without obtaining the necessary permits, and was identified as engaging in illegal construction by law enforcement officers.
• Occupying Public Areas: If containers are stacked in public areas, such as sidewalks or public basketball courts, they should be recognized and dealt with as illegal occupation of public space. The Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Team of Changhai Road Subdistrict discovered two residentially modified containers placed on the sidewalk at the intersection of Zhongyuan Road and Changhai Plaza during a patrol. These containers occupied the road, affected the normal passage of citizens, and posed fire safety hazards, and were thus identified as illegal structures.

Special Circumstances

• Exemption with Compliance: Some regions have issued exemption lists, allowing certain minor and reasonable modification requests to be exempt from planning approval, but with strict prerequisites. Containers that do not fall within the exemption scope are still considered illegal. For example, a homeowner in a residential community in Daojiao Town, Dongguan City placed a container on the second-floor balcony, claiming it was not fixed and the balcony was private space. However, since no construction planning permit was obtained and it was not within the exemption scope, it was identified as an illegal structure by the urban management authorities.

Legal Basis

According to Articles 64 and 65 of the Urban and Rural Planning Law of the People's Republic of China, any construction without a construction planning permit or not in accordance with the provisions of the construction planning permit shall be ordered by the competent department of urban and rural planning of the local people's government at or above the county level or the people's government of a township or town to stop construction and make corrections within a time limit; if no corrections are made within the time limit, the construction may be demolished.