Authorities in Germany have ordered the demolition of a Bavarian house due to the roof being 36cm too high.
The Bavarian administrative court in Munich's ruling is "binding and final", ending a four-year court battle between developers and local authorities.
The house, located in Wolfratshausen, south of Munich, is one of three such cases under demolition orders in Upper Bavaria, despite the region suffering from a housing shortage, according to local media.
Homeowner, Jens Riediger, a 57-year-old engineer, said: "Living space worth millions of euros is going to be destroyed.
The house is located in Wolfratshausen
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"And this is only because the roof is 36cm too high, and because a garage was built instead of a carport [roofed shelter] and the ground was filled in."
Speaking to the Bild newspaper, Riediger claimed there are other houses in the village with taller roofs than his home.
Riediger added: "We now live in 180 square metres, it will not be easy to find a house like that for the same rent."
The row over the height of the building's roof started in 2021, when developers offered to fix the problem by removing the property's regulatory defects.
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This offer was rejected by the local court, which instead explored the possibility of turning the building into a women's shelter, which was later abandoned.
The family has some time to find a new place to live, with the demolition crew not scheduled to arrive until spring 2026.
A spokesman for Wolfratshausen's district office defended the decision in a statement to Bild, explaining the house had too many defects.
They said: "The significant deviations [from planning regulations] consisted of embankments, higher walls, roofs with different pitches and the construction of a garage instead of a carport."
A house is to be demolished because it has a roof too highGETTYThis is not the first time German planning regulations have been strictly enforced.
In 2014, a German pensioner was ordered to take down her home because it had been built in 1939 without planning permission, due to the chaos of the Second World War breaking out.
The pensioner resisted the ruling and launched a lengthy court battle against the demolition order, which paid off.
Local officials backed down, allowing her to keep her home.
