Investigative authorities Wednesday inspected a condominium complex sold by Huser Ltd., a property developer at the center of a building structure-data fabrication scandal, with a view to pressing charges over building standards law violations.
Grand Stage Fujisawa in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, which has the lowest earthquake-resistance strength among the buildings designed with substandard data by disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha, who has been stripped of his license, is the first building sold by Huser to be inspected over the scandal.
Huser, declared bankrupt by the Tokyo District Court last month, is suspected of having sold Grand Stage Fujisawa units while knowing about the data fabrication, according to investigative sources.
Investigators are also looking into the Tokyo-based firm's alleged violations of the building transaction business law, which requires sellers to inform potential purchasers about important matters concerning buildings, the sources said.
About 20 investigators entered Grand Stage Fujisawa for the Wednesday morning inspections, including uncovering parts of walls to check the actual quake-resistance strength based on the amount of reinforcement steel.
Investigations have found that there were discrepancies between the architectural plan prepared based on structural calculation sheets for the complex and the actual construction work conducted by now-bankrupt Kimura Construction Co.
The architectural plan for the complex, which has 10 stories and one basement floor, shows the structural strength to be 28 percent of the national structural-strength standard, but a recalculation based on the working diagram that reflected revisions had it at 15 percent, according to the sources.
While the prospects for tearing down the building are unclear, the Fujisawa Municipal Government is considering submitting a supplementary spending bill to the city assembly for dismantling the upper floors, saying it cannot leave a dangerous building unattended.
Of the complex's 30 units, 13 remain unsold.
