Hourly Rainfall Tops 100 Millimeters, Turning Basement Into a Sea; Car Owners Lose Lawsuit Against Building Committee

Two car owners whose vehicles were submerged in a Tainan condominium basement have lost their bid for compensation after the court treated the flooding as an overwhelming natural disaster.

The flooding occurred last August at a residential building in Yongkang, Tainan. The owners, surnamed Yen and Cheng, said their cars were parked on the first basement level and suffered serious water damage. They argued that the management committee should have installed flood barriers sooner and warned residents to move their vehicles.

The owners said authorities had issued dozens of warnings that day and that the committee knew the area was prone to flooding. They criticized it for not hiring security personnel, installing an automatic gate or conducting patrols while the water was rising. They sought NT$542,200 and NT$869,861 respectively for repairs and replacement transportation.

The committee said residents had already decided not to hire security or property-management staff. It also argued that an electric flood gate would have required approval from all residents because it constituted major maintenance. Rainfall exceeded 103 millimeters per hour, it said, overwhelming urban drainage systems. The committee added that it sent pumps as soon as it learned of the flooding.

The Tainan District Court said the rain exceeded the drainage system’s capacity and arrived with exceptional suddenness and unpredictability. Committee members were ordinary residents without disaster-prevention expertise, the court said, and could not reasonably be expected to forecast the flooding or monitor conditions continuously. It therefore rejected both claims.