Tartu is also home to the "upside down" house visitor attraction, but this real-life case of a building gone wonky led to a "Pealtnägija" report a year ago.

The ensuing backlash and publicity about the subsidence affecting the relatively new apartment build prompted the construction company involved to erect a new one in its place, at a cost of around a million euros, in what is thought to be the first time a rebuild of this has ever happened in Estonia.

Owner Grete Mark spoke of a desperation which came as part of a years-long saga which saw a prestigious five-apartment building, on Lubja street, completed in 2015, start to subside at one point. It took several years for residents to notice the issues, such as doors which would not open and close properly, and in December 2022 matters came to a head.

"I remember very, very well that I went out in the evening and the doors opened, but when I came back home, they no longer did," Mark recalled.

Last February Ulla Preeden, rector of the Tartu Health Care College (Tartu tervishoiu kõrgkool), who had also bought an apartment in the block, conducted an experiment of her own in the hallway of her apartment. A ball she placed on the floor then rolled away, with no extra force applied. The building turned out to have a slant of over 40 centimeters, Preeden found out.

Fortunately for Preeden, when she conducted the same experiment, with bated breath, exactly a year later, the ball did not roll this time. Although everything appeared outwardly the same, in reality the apartment and the entire building had been demolished over the course of the year, but rebuilt to exactly the same spec.

Preeden's husband, for instance, noticed while using the bathroom that the water no longer flowed where it should have but instead into the bedroom. More and more problems emerged, and the building was declared unfit for habitation. Mapri, the company linked to the firm that built the houses, stated that since construction had been completed seven years earlier, it bore no legal or construction-related responsibility. The construction company's pledge therefore came as a major surprise to apartment owners.

Whereas apartment owners had previously gone to court with the developer and commissioned expert assessments and evaluations, after the "Pealtnägija" television segment, the house became a wider topic of discussion, and even an attraction of a kind. Tour groups even visited the building, and taxi drivers still point out Tartu's most famous house (the intentionally upside-down house aside) to passengers.

"Since many people have mortgages, it probably resonated with them strongly. Everyone understood that if something like this happens, you can end up making repayments for the rest of your life yet have nothing to show for it. It was truly astonishing how many people reacted wholly positively and kept asking how things were going," Preeden recounted.

Even more important than the public attention was the fact that a couple of weeks after the broadcast, Mapri — which, according to the owners, had previously worked against their interests and whose representative initially told "Pealtnägija" that the company did not see itself at fault and only wanted to give positive comments — summoned the residents together for a meeting. The construction company's then head, the late Priit Jaagant, announced that the decision had been weighed up again.

"Priit Jaagant said that they were sorry it had taken so long to make the decision, and that they had a proposal to build us a new and identical house," another owner, Virge Hansen, told "Pealtnägija." Preeden described this as the about-turn of the century, since all previous communication had offered no hope for a solution.

"None of the apartment owners actually expected an outcome like that; no one could have imagined it even in their dreams, based on what had happened over the previous three years," Mark acknowledged. According to Hansen, after the immense release of tension, she was initially unable to feel any joy, however, due to the exhaustion following the three-year dispute.

Mapri's after-sales service manager, Ero Tragel, conceded the public attention certainly gave some impetus to the company's actions, but added the company had in fact been there for apartment owners from the moment the issues first arose. "It simply took time to find a common language," Tragel explained.

Grete Mark said her belief is that without the coverage on "Pealtnägija" and the warm reception and attention from the show's viewers, there would be no new house today to speak of. In her view, in a small country like Estonia, it matters to every company, no matter how well it has been performing elsewhere, if someone speaks badly about it. That affects future procurement and work practices, she said.

"In any case, it seems that placing Mapri's reputation into question finally set things in motion," the apartment owner added. Broken underpinnings and proximity to Emajõgi River responsible for the subsidence

Mapri's decision to demolish the building at a total cost of nearly one million euros and then rebuild it attracted attention, but its actions followed its words, and quickly. In May 2025, the residents moved out, ahead of the demolition work. As the case was unprecedented in Estonia's construction history, the company also pledged an honest overview of the causes of the error.

That report is now complete, and identifies the specific underpinnings that fractured and caused the building to subside by nearly half a meter. However, Tragel said subsidence relating to the nearby Emajõgi River was a factor.

"The expert opinion points to soil movement in the vertical or horizontal ground layers originating from the neighboring plot. This is indicated by the shape of the pile deformation and the fracture direction of the broken underpinnings, which all point toward the Emajõgi River," Tragel said.

Hansen noted that an unsuitable type of underpinning had been designed for that soil. According to Tragel, the company essentially did nothing wrong, meaning in hindsight there is nothing specific to blame.

"Everything was done according to documentation, installed correctly from a technological standpoint, and the pile failure occurred due to ground displacement," Tragel went on. "This is not about seeking a culprit or compensation for damages; it is a valuable lesson for everyone, from students to builders."

Mark noted that Mapri had not admitted to making a mistake which they would then fix; what they did say is they would fix the situation. For that apartment owner at least, that is sufficient. Preeden too considers Mapri's acceptance of responsibility, to the extent that it has done so, an important step, adding she appreciated it.

While the house rebuild was initially promised for completion by May this year, that deadline was beaten and it was actually finished in February. A week prior to the "Pealtnägija" update, the builder handed over the new-old homes to their owners, who naturally had had to find temporary housing in the meantime.

Mark noted that it was only now starting to "sink in," as it were, what it means to be in a new, newly reborn apartment. "For a long time it didn't feel real what had happened or whether new ones would actually be built. We are only now slowly recovering from the court cases and all this ordeal.

Tragel added that a completely different type of underpinning was used when rebuilding the house, while sleeves were left in the softest peat layer to provide additional support, to prevent a recurrence of the same problem.

While a kitchen is being installed in her apartment, so she can move in soon, Hansen's unit — previously rented out — will now become home to her adult son. Meanwhile Preeden, who will soon exchange her rector's position for that of Tartu deputy mayor, is still getting used to a situation where the apartment looks exactly the same as before, yet the floors are no longer slanted and water does not flow in the wrong direction from the shower area. "Anyone who regains hope is and must be very grateful, and I am very grateful and our family is very grateful," Preeden said.

Hansen said the final faucets and sockets have now been installed, and now her son's wish to move in will come true. Although a child leaving home is a somewhat sad moment, she said she feels great joy about the house nevertheless.

Mark meanwhile said she is in retrospect grateful to herself and all the other owners for not giving up and for using every possible means in desperation to bring the story into the open.

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