Legal Adventures in Shanghai – Part Four
Posted by Becky on 13th January 2010
[ 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…
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