10 People Who Tried To Protect Their Homes From Big Developers

In the classic cartoon “No Parking Hare,” Bugs Bunny finds out that his rabbit hole is right in the path of a planned freeway. From there, he and a construction worker wage a battle of wits dotted with all of the usual Looney Tunes hijinks. Try as he might, the construction worker can’t get rid of Bugs’s hole and the short ends with the freeway diverting around a narrow silo with the hole on top.

The ending is meant to serve as a punchline but in reality, it’s not so ridiculous of an ending because real development projects have ended the same way. A famous case of the real thing centers around 84-year-old Edith Macefield of Seattle, whose home stood on land that developers wanted to use for a shopping mall. No matter how much money they offered her, she refused to sell her house and remained right where she was. As a result, the project was built around her house, which still stands there today. Her story was said to inspire the movie Up! and the house is now decorated with balloons.

Yet, Macefield is far from the only homeowner to stand firm in the face of a huge project and you can hear all about her kindred spirits in the full video. 

As you watch, you may have noticed that a lot of the examples come from China. The nation’s economic boom in recent years has given them an opportunity to ramp up development for large-scale industrial parks, financial centers, and roadways. But as you can see, not everyone is so keen on relocating and losing the homes they’ve made for themselves to make way for these.

As the video notes, the Chinese government once had the authority to forcibly evict anyone who stood in the way of these development projects. Yet these evictions often ended in violence, so a law was passed preventing the demolition of a person’s home if they don’t accept the developer’s terms. Now that this law on the books, the phenomenon of building around a holdout’s home is common enough that there’s a term for it. 

A structure that stands in the middle of a construction project is known as a “nail house” because the house stands like a nail that refuses to be hammered down. While it’s true that these residents can’t be evicted, builders can find ways to make life difficult for those who won’t leave.

Many owners of “nail houses” have found their water and electricity mysteriously cut off, sometimes even in daring night-time raids. Some are rugged enough to persevere through this challenge but most of them end up complying and accepting payouts.

That may not sound so bad but it’s important to note that these homeowners are often offered just a fraction of their home’s value as compensation.  So while many of them file lawsuits for the right to stay there, still others are seeking more reasonable offers.

Don’t forget to COMMENT and tell us what you would do if someone tried to build over your home.