this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
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‘I do regret it a bit’: Stubborn grandfather has motorway built around his house after refusing £180k to move (www.aol.co.uk)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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A stubborn grandfather had a motorway built around his house in China after refusing to move, despite being offered £180,000 in compensation.

Huang Ping’s two-storey home in Jinxi, China, is now surrounded by a construction site with constant dust, noisy builders and vibrating walls.

He says he now regrets not taking the Chinese government’s money and fears what living in his property will be like once the expressway opens in Spring.

“If I could turn back time, I would agree to the demolition conditions they offered. Now it feels like I lost a big bet,” he said.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 5 days ago (2 children)

180k is pennies when you're asking someone to move out of their own home.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And it probably cost them 10x that to make all the modifications and special allowances to build around the house. They definitely could have increased the offer.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

I suspect they do this to show the other holdouts what happens when you want more than everyone else got.

[–] Stern 13 points 5 days ago

He could 100% have gotten a new house for that. Thats nearly 2 million yuan. So long as hes not going to like, Beijing, anyhow.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 days ago (1 children)

aol? .

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Wales:

The family home that's in the middle of a busy roundabout

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

There is an even better one with multiple houses and a pub!

Shepherd and flock roundabout

The inside access road onto the roundabout is an interesting one to experience.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

That’s amazing!!!

[–] feedum_sneedson 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Weird to see this come up. Let's just say I regularly drive past here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

It was quite a nice pub last time I visited. Not ideal to get to on a road bike though.

[–] 200ok 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Does anyone have any frame of reference for how much it roughly cost to build around the house?

[–] cryptiod137 8 points 5 days ago

Million, maybe a few. Less than ten

[–] bananabenana 16 points 5 days ago

Move for health and noise reasons then open a coffee shop on the land. Sell land when they wanna build extra lanes

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

It’s interesting to discover the Chinese government uses less coercion than the US government in these situations.

With the US government’s right of Eminent Domain, there is no choice. The government does reimburse you, but there’s no choice involved.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

Good for him, sit it out. Eventually they’ll want to expand the road and he or his future relatives will hit pay dirt.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(real_estate)#Nail_house

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Stott Hall Farm

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

That one is an urban myth.

A farmhouse in the middle of one of Britain's busiest motorways has been made the subject of a documentary. Stott Hall Farm, one of West Yorkshire's best known sights, appears cut off by the M62 motorway, with east- and westbound lanes dividing around the building.

For 10 years, it has been home to farmer Paul Thorp, who has grown used to the constant hum of the traffic. Danny Lomax, 28, a student filmmaker, said: 'I wanted to find what it was like for someone to live in the middle of one of the country's busiest roads, while living the life of a hill farmer.'

The documentary also debunks the urban myth that the motorway curves around the farmhouse because a former owner refused to move. 'It was the landscape that meant the motorway couldn't be built right through and had to be built around it,' said Lomax.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Wait, this is a real thing that happened in reality? I thought this was the Onion