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The story
A post about construction on a brand-new home suddenly grinding to a halt has gone viral on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board. According to the original poster, a neighbor called it in after construction vehicles blocked off the road, and when officials came out to investigate, they found the builder had never obtained a road use permit and had also skipped the mandatory “setback” required for lots fronting narrow roads — forcing a redesign of the whole plan. Commenters were split over everything from the choice of a cheap contractor, to concerns about building on farmland inherited from the poster’s grandfather and converted for residential use, to whether the quoted price was even reasonable.
What people said
And on top of that, after someone reported it and officials came out to investigate, it came out we never did this "setback" thing either, so now they're demanding we redo the whole plan
Did you hire some sketchy company?
I went with them because they were cheap, some place I'd never even heard of
But I did actually research their track record first
That's way too much of a gamble
What are you even cheaping out on
If you hire some random outfit for your house you'll end up paying through the nose later
I've already filed the paperwork to move out of my current rental by the end of March next year, if this doesn't get done in time I genuinely don't know what I'll do
Just live in a tent in the yard until the exterior work starts
By the time the exterior work begins the house should be done, so just move in then
Don't go soft on yourself just because you're the homeowner
Just bill the contractor for a hotel
Won't make it in time?
I looked it up — don't you just need to improve part of the lot so it can be used as road to secure the required width?
If there's a building planned on the land you're supposed to hand over for that, you're redoing the whole thing
I'd think it's fine as long as there's no building on that part
Between 30 million yen and 22 million yen, you'd pick the 22 million, right?
An 8-million-yen gap is scary
There's a reason for an 8-million-yen gap
In the industry, a difference of up to 10% is considered margin of error — beyond that, you start suspecting missing line items or a padded quote
They probably never even got building confirmation approval in the first place lol
Then you can't use that spot as a parking space for your car
Yeah, you're screwed. Better luck next time
ChatGPT ("Chappy" is slang for ChatGPT) is saying the land-use conversion permit could even get revoked, is that for real?
You're in deep trouble and you're asking ChatGPT about it
Go see a licensed first-class architect's office lol
What's that?
OP's own contractor: "What's that?"
You're paying 22 million yen and you just dumped it all on someone else, lol
Isn't that normally a judicial scrivener's job (shihoshoshi, who handles registrations)?
What can an administrative scrivener even do here?
You're supposed to check that stuff when you buy the land
It wasn't bought, it was inherited
Just use the house your grandpa was living in as-is
He already said it's a conversion, are you dumb?
I'm saying if he inherited it from his grandpa, then grandpa's old house should be sitting empty
I don't see why farmland conversion was even necessary
Don't build a new house when you're tight enough on money to haggle over 8 million yen lol
What country has a house standing on farmland
Look up what "farmland" actually means before you post
Were you trying to build an apartment building or something?
It's a 170-square-meter single-story house
Not really a mansion
That's just normal pricing these days, and an apartment building would easily run over 100 million yen
That's just what it costs these days
And honestly, now is probably the cheapest it's going to get
What are you even talking about
Wasn't grandpa's house part of what you inherited when he died?
Nope
My mom inherited the house
People in the countryside are increasingly stuck gambling on some local contractor they barely know anything about
There's more work in the cities and better margins to be had
Just blame it on rising material and labor costs and clients will sign off on quotes with even fatter margins baked in
With the big home builders, like 30% of the construction cost is just advertising spend that has nothing to do with the actual building
A local contractor is actually better
Just make sure payment happens at handover
If you get an architect you know to check the process and the materials, you can get something good and cheap
Background and Key Issues in This Story
The “setback” mentioned in the thread refers to a provision under Article 42, Paragraph 2 of Japan’s Building Standards Act: any lot fronting a road narrower than 4 meters must set its building back 2 meters from the road’s centerline. Skip this, and building confirmation approval won’t go through — if it’s discovered mid-construction, revising the lot area and layout plan becomes unavoidable. The road use permit is a separate matter, a filing with the local police station required whenever construction work occupies public road space, and in this case that too appears to have been missing. In the thread, opinions were split between those blaming the choice of a cheap contractor and those worried about mishandled procedures for converting the inherited farmland, with no clear consensus reached. There was also discussion of the gap between the 30-million-yen and 22-million-yen quotes — commenters noted that in the industry, a difference of more than roughly 10% is often a sign of a padded quote or missing line items. Others pointed out that as major home builders continue pulling out of rural areas, orders are increasingly concentrated with local contractors — suggesting this isn’t just one person’s bad luck, but a reflection of broader structural shifts in the housing industry. It’s worth noting that the account is based solely on the original poster’s own description, and neither the authorities’ nor the contractor’s side of the story is known.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] My New House’s Construction Has Been Halted“.
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