‘Who is she?’ Woman in China finds her house used for soap opera without permission when she sees actress in her bed on TV
- The woman hired a property management company to look after a holiday house she bought in eastern China in 2015, but used it infrequently
- The owner said 60 scenes were filmed, including in the main bedroom, and the crew caused damage including broken glass, stained carpets, and a broken elevator
A court in China has ordered two TV drama series’ producers and a property company to pay a total of 400,000 yuan (US$63,000) to a woman for using her holiday villa to film scenes without obtaining her permission.
The woman hired a property management company to look after her villa when she was away. It was during her absence that the management company allowed more than one TV crew to enter the house and film while charging a fee without the owner’s knowledge or consent.
The woman, only identified in court documents by her family name Lin, said she only realised her house was used by others when she watched a TV series called Heart-to-Heart Dialogue at home in Hangzhou in September 2019. She said she was “shocked” to see the main female actress was sleeping in her bed.
Lin bought the villa in Cixi, Zhejiang, with 30 million yuan (US$4.6 million) in 2014, news portal The Paper reported.
Since she lives in Hangzhou she signed a contract in 2015 with the property management company, whose name was not released in the report, to manage the property while she was away before handing the keys over to them.
The owner said over 60 scenes were filmed at the villa, including in the master bedroom, and that the TV crew had caused damage including broken glass, stained carpets, a broken elevator and worn furniture
The two production companies and property management company were told by the court to divide the compensation payment between the parties.