Legal Adventures in Shanghai – Part One
Posted by Becky on January 9th, 2010
Becky here. I’ve been both looking forward to writing this down as well as dreading it. There have been so many times when I felt such urge to sit down and just begin writing even when I was physically spent. I looked forward to it because thankfully I have friends that care about me and ask me about it. Once I write it all down, all my friends that are interested could just read about it. I dreaded it because I did not want the frustration from remembering and reliving the experience.
As I am neither a certified nor a professional interpreter, I cannot be responsible for the accuracy in my translation. Anyway, here goes the long and somewhat painful journey of my recent apartment purchase in Shanghai.
In November 2009, my father took an interest in an apartment in PuDong. After talking to us, we decided to buy it together. He paid RMB20.000 to order that apartment and signed a pre-contract.
On Saturday morning, 2009/11/28, I signed a purchase contract for the apartment. Apart from some representatives from the HaoK property agency, the previous owners of the apartment consisting of 2 couples (2 sisters and their husbands) with the sisters’ brother, a notary, my father, and I were present. The contract was carefully reviewed; signed by the four owners, property agent Wang, and myself; and notarized by notary Zhang. Afterwards, we went to the banks and wired our down-payment. That afternoon, I returned to HaoK property agency for the application of a mortgage. The bank representatives, notary Zhang, and property agents Wang and Xu were there with me. I had to submit additional documents and was told that it would take about 10 work days for the bank to approve/disapprove my mortgage application.
About 4 days after-wards, I received a phone call from property agent Xu saying that the previous owners (Li and others) wanted me to go to the Property Bureau with them to make the transfer of the apartment’s ownership. That was a very strange idea to me as I hadn’t even been notified that my mortgage application was approved yet. Agent Xu explained that the property laws were going to change effective as of 2010/01/01, and that both couples (Li and others) wanted to purchase their separate apartments by the end of the year 2009 so they wanted to expedite things. I declined, reminded him that my mortgage was not approved yet, and asked everyone to follow standard procedures and the contract as well as for Li and the others to rethink about transferring the apartment ownership to me before they even got paid the rest of the money by the bank. I understood later that they were also concerned about the laws regarding tax; it was said that tax was going to increase.
I kept calling the bank almost every single day, asking them to expedite things. Finally it came through. I was notified by agent Xu Monday late-afternoon, 2009/12/14, that my mortgage had been approved and that it was time for us to go to the Property Bureau. My Tuesday morning teaching schedule is quite full, and so I said that I would go to the Bureau Tuesday afternoon. Agent Xu contacted Li et al and called me back saying that they preferred to meet at the Bureau in the mornings. I proposed Wednesday morning. He called back later saying that they wanted it to be done as early as possible and so agreed to go to the Bureau Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday afternoon, 2009/12/15, we made the ownership transfer at the Property Bureau and paid our taxes plus other purchasing-related bills. Li’s sister and sister’s husband left as soon as they were done with their business. Before the rest of us got on our separate ways, I decided and told them that I would pay to expedite the processing of the green Ownership Certificate Booklet. This way, I would get the apartment sooner and they would get their money sooner. Upon hearing this, Li’s husband was very happy and even half-joked saying “you could have the keys right now!” with a huge smile. That was the day I also paid the property agents’ fee. That was a mistake committed by my father in the pre-contract. (If you live in Shanghai, never make this mistake! Wait until you actually get your keys before you pay them in full!)
That evening, 2009/12/15, agent Xu called to let me know that the Ownership Certificate Booklet would be ready for pick-up by the bank after 3P.M. on 2009/12/23. I felt relieved while my father and brother began planning and contacting the interior designer and contractors for the apartment’s refurbishment. Little did I know that it was only the beginning of something so ridiculous and bizarre.