[ This is part of a multi-post series about our little legal problem in Shanghai. To read previous installments go here
]

As I mentioned the words damages/penalty fees (违约金）and before I could finish my sentence, Li’s brother jumped and screamed “I do not recognize any damages/penalty fees!”  Immediately, I walked out of the apartment without saying a word.

I’m in China, I do not want to be dragged into a possible physical fight.  My dad and I, an old man and a woman, were outnumbered to say the least.  It is not in my nature to talk while anyone is fuming, and it is not my nature to get into verbal fights let alone physical fights.  Those of you readers that live in China, you should know how often and how easily people pick fights here.

I kept walking on the corridor right outside of my apartment waiting for my dad to follow me.  Of course, I soon realized that he was not coming out and still talking to them.  I walked quickly back in, a war erupted; I kept telling Dad to go with me while he grabbed a copy of the document that I signed and forgot about.  He strangely still had a smile on his face and told them to leave our property.  Li, her brother, and Huang screamed saying that it was their property as they still had not gotten the RMB20.000 from us even though according to the Shanghai Property Bureau, I had been the legal owner of that apartment since 2009/12/23.  The agent was useless just standing by the corner and watching.

I again told my father to go with me, saying nothing to the others.  My father told them that they gave us no choice but to find a lawyer; they told us to leave “their” premise and find a lawyer.  Upon leaving, I took out my tape recorder and told them “it’s ok; I got everything on tape.”  I saw all the faces in the apartment became shocked as we left.

(From the minimal contact that I had with the agent as well as Li et al, I felt that they were dishonest; that was why I prepared a tape recorder.  Sadly, it actually came into use.)

Dad and I met agent Xu and his colleague outside of the compound, in front of HaoK Property Agency’s closed store a few moments after we left my apartment.  Dad asked agent Xu to write down exactly what happened and sign; agent Xu seemed headless and scared and would not write anything or even sigh a witness statement.  We did not get the keys; that was the truth, but Xu would not admit that we did not get the keys.  Needless to say, I was outraged by all the happenings.  Thankfully, I didn’t say a word and just followed my dad.

Dad and I then went over to the nearest police station wanting to file a report.  A policewoman and a policeman told us that they do not understand property disputes and what happened to us was outside of their jurisdiction; they advised us to find a lawyer and not to enter the apartment until the disputes were resolved.

We met outside HaoK with the agent again.  He told us that Li, her brother, and Huang were still inside the apartment.  By this time, it was about 7P.M.  My father decided that we should go back to my apartment and talk calmly to Li for her to think things over carefully again.  As we set off towards the apartment (about 3 minutes walk), agent Xu was on the phone with them and probably told them about our plan.  When we arrived by the entrance to our building and asked to be let in, the guard told us that they had just left.  We figured that agent Xu told them.  Feeling disappointed, we went home.

All this happened on 2010/01/01.  I was sad that my new year began like this, and that after spending sooo much money on buying something (property, in this case), I was never thanked, smiled at but was ill treated.  I felt cheated.  I felt robbed.  I wanted justice.

Now, we were really going down that legal road…

[ This is part of a multi-post series about our little legal problem in Shanghai. To read previous installments go here
]

Late night of Wednesday, 2009/12/30, agent Xu called me saying that Li had decided to move out on Friday, 2010/01/01, and wanted to transfer the apartment’s admin, gas, and TV cable ownerships to me Thursday afternoon, 2009/12/31.  I especially asked the agent if we would have enough time to handle these things on new year’s eve as I expected places to be crowded and businesses closed earlier than the usual.  He told me that it should be fine.

My brother and I went to meet with the 2 agents and Li close-by the apartment.  Agent Xu called Li many times and eventually went to the apartment while we all waited on the street for Li to come out.  When she finally appeared, she looked unhappy.  We exchanged no words with each other that day.  It turned out that we were too late and only managed to transfer the ownership for the gas.  When we went to the admin’s office, all of us were told that Li had not paid for over 2 years of the apartment’s admin fee.  And it was too late that day for her to make the payments.

That night, I told agent Xu to type out a document calculating the amount of the damages/penalty fees.  For the tenth time, he told me to drop it.  And for the hundredth time, I told him I was following and honoring the contract and insisted on getting what was rightfully and legally mine according to the contract, which wasn’t even really what I wanted.  What I wanted was for them to hand over the apartment to me within 3 days after getting the mortgage money, as stated in our contract.  Even though I told Xu to do it, I knew he was not going to deliver.  He’d been like a little mouse all this time.

I was anxious about the apartment handover that was scheduled to happen on new year’s day.  Agent Xu told us to be at the apartment at 2P.M.  I called around 1P.M. asking him to confirm the time with Li.  He called back saying that it was pushed to 3P.M.  My dad and I left around 1:45P.M. and went to withdraw some money first, as I was supposed to pay them the last bit of money, RMB20.000, on the day of apartment hand-over.  We met at 3P.M. in the apartment.  Li, her brother, Huang, agent Xu with a colleague of his, my dad, and I were present.

My dad and I checked the apartment while the others talked.  Afterwards, we all stood around the dining table that they decided to leave behind.  Agent Xu calculated the outstanding utility bills and took out a sheet of paper.  On the piece of paper, 2 lines stood out with blank boxes that one could check mark.

The first line read like this:
(Blank Box)  Admin ownership has been transferred, and all moneys relating to this apartment have been paid and cleared.
(Blank Box)  Key and Gate card have been handed over.

The agent asked me to sign.  At this point in time, only the first blank box had been checked.  I drew an arrow from “Admin ownership” and wrote on the top of that line “this transfer is planned to be done around January 4th.”

There were 3 copies of the same thing, and Li and I were supposed to sign all 3 copies.  One copy for me, one for Li, and one for the property agent.

Once we signed all three, the agent took them and checked the other blank box without my realizing it.  (Never sign papers that have blank boxes in China!)

While this was happening, I was getting my money ready and asked them to deduct the utilities and the damages/penalty fees from the RMB20.000.

Now the drama started…

(I’m beginning to think I should number these as “episodes” rather than “parts”.  It’s starting to look like a TV series!)

[ This is part of a multi-post series about our little legal problem in Shanghai. To read previous installments go here
]

According to the bank, the money from my mortgage would be deposited into Li’s bank account within 3 days of the release of my Ownership Certificate Booklet.  And, according to the Apartment Purchase Contract that we signed, the owners were to hand over the apartment and its keys to me within 3 days of their getting the money from my mortgage.  I was notified by both the bank and property agent Xu that the mortgage money was deposited and received in Li’s account by 2009/12/25.  I was happy about the prospect of being able to get my keys by 2009/12/27.

When I was still not contacted on 12/27, I asked agent Xu when I would be getting the keys; he told me that Li’s family was still living inside the apartment.  I then told the agent to get a date by which they would hand over the apartment as well as to remind them that according to the contract, they would have to be responsible for the consequences of their breach of contract in the related sections.

On Monday, 2009/12/28, agent Xu called saying that Li was not sure when they would move out.  I insisted on getting a move-out date from the agent.  That evening, the agent finally told me that they planned to move out on the weekend.  I asked if the move-out date would be Saturday or Sunday, as our contractors were waiting to move in and start working (they work even on new year’s day) while our deposit and contract with our interior designer had an approaching expiry date.

By now, Li still had not made any contact with me to ask about extending their stay in the apartment (which was already under my name as of 2009/12/23).  I complained to the agent that my permission was never asked for by Li or granted.  The agent had Li’s husband call me Monday evening.  It was a short conversation:

Huang (Li’s husband):  Hello, we probably will move out this weekend.
Me:  This weekend?  Could you give me an exact date?  Saturday or Sunday?
Huang:  Oh, then, let’s just say Sunday.
Me:  But the damages/penalty fees (I’m unsure of the translation of the technical term “违约金” here) have become effective according to our contract.    (I did not get to say “I just want you to keep that in mind,” hoping that that would help to get them moved out earlier.)
Huang:  (angrily) You want to charge me?!  If you do this, then I don’t know when I’ll want to move out.
Me:  Then, once you’ve decided on a move-out date, please just let me know.  Thanks.  Bye.  (hung up.)

I was not happy.  That was my apartment.  They had no right to occupy it beyond 2009/12/27, let alone occupying it for free.  More over, their attitude was ignorant and tone of voice threatening.  They even told the agent that I should just go and take my money back because they were simply not going to move out.  Whom was I dealing with?!?!!  If they didn’t want to move out, why did they sell the apartment?  There were so many questions in my head.

The next day, 2009/12/29, I called both agents Wang and Xu many times asking them to send a written document informing Li to vacate the premise by 2009/01/03 and reminding them of their legal responsibility as a result of their breach of related sections of the contract.  Wang and Xu were reluctant to issue the document, but I insisted on it as well as getting a copy of the document.   Tuesday afternoon, I received the copy and my Ownership Certificate Booklet.  (Before this day, the bank had kept the Booklet safe for me.)

I kept wondering when I would actually get the keys and grew uncomfortable by how unpleasant and complicated it had become. Little did I know back then that it was going to be beyond complicated.

To Be Continued…

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.

We’ve been to many hospitals in Shanghai, and most of them have a VIP section. This is just a reception area where you tell them what you need, and they will assign a nurse to you who will take you to all different departments you need to go to: doctor visits, x-ray etc… These sections are the same ones everybody else goes to, the difference for VIP is that you don’t have to wait.

To get a VIP treatment you just pay more. I don’t think there’s a similar service in Italian hospitals, at least not most of them. But it makes sense here in China. There is a majority of people who aren’t wealthy, and who can barely afford a bike. So obviously they’ll be happy to wait a long time for their turn, if it costs less. On the other hand there are also wealthier families, who can afford to pay more for a faster service.

Another sign of the different culture.