As the new crown pneumonia epidemic slowed down, the real estate market in many places "recovered". According to statistics from the China Index Research Institute, since February this year, the month-on-month increase in the average house price in 100 cities across the country has rebounded slightly for four consecutive months, and the number of rising cities has also increased.
The backlog of demand in the first quarter was gradually released. At the same time, various disputes also occurred frequently. Especially young home buyers who set foot in the property market for the first time are prone to encountering intermediaries and real estate agents.
According to an analysis by a real estate agency, during the epidemic, many intermediary agencies had poor business, and in the past two years, some real estate brand brokerage companies have successively entered second and third tier cities, or cooperated with some relatively strong local economic companies in the form of franchise, and divided the market share , Causing some small local intermediary companies to compete for customers, deceive customers, and force buying and selling.
In addition, the epidemic has ignited emerging things such as VR viewings and live streaming. However, in the eyes of Li Lianyuan, an independent real estate commentator and expert on second-hand housing issues, there is a difference between viewing a house through Internet technology and real-life viewing. Buying a house live may be just a "gimmick", even if it is a company that does "no reason to refund". It is also possible to use the buyer's deposit to activate the capital chain in a short time.
In fact, in recent years, real estate disputes in many places across the country have been increasing. In 2017, the Chengdu City Court of Sichuan Province accepted 36,921 real estate dispute cases, and in 2019 it reached 47,276; the Beijing Changping Court received 965 new cases involving housing sales contract disputes in the first half of 2017, an increase of 48% over the same period in 2016. It accounts for 13% of the total number of contract disputes; from 2014 to 2018, the two-level people's courts in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region accepted a total of 25,670 real estate dispute cases, accounting for 16% of the number of civil and commercial disputes accepted in the same period.
The types of real estate disputes are mainly concentrated in housing sales contract disputes. Attorney Feng Ting of Inner Mongolia Qingsheng Law Firm concluded that housing sales contract disputes can be roughly divided into two categories: the first type requires the continued performance of the housing sales contract, for example, the late delivery of the house requires compensation for liquidated damages. The other is to request the rescission of the house purchase contract, because buyers who cannot deliver the house request compensation for rescinding the contract.
Feng Ting analyzed that for second-hand houses, irregularities in the contract terms have led to disputes in the sale of houses, such as unclear agreement on the delivery time and payment delivery time. Most young people buy houses through intermediary agencies, so the irregular operation of real estate intermediaries has also caused disputes over housing sales contracts.
An industry insider analyzed that most home buyers would entrust real estate intermediaries to deal with housing transactions, but the intermediary level of intermediaries and the quality of brokers vary. In addition, the contracts signed by buyers and sellers are mostly provided by intermediary agencies. Driven by interests, some real estate intermediary agencies disregard professional ethics and deliberately set traps in the contract text or evade intermediary responsibilities. There are also a small number of intermediaries who are eager to obtain intermediary remuneration and use false promises to facilitate the signing of contracts, which has led to many disputes.
"Previously, there was a phenomenon of'high loans and low debts'. Loans were made at high prices and transfers were made at low prices to achieve the goal of paying less taxes." said Zhang Xiaochen, a senior intermediary who has been in business for more than 10 years. There are many hidden dangers in the withdrawal of loans, secondary transactions, including some economic disputes. Prior to this, Zhang Xiaochen had also seen some unexpected emergencies. After the buyer paid the deposit, the seller ran away, and some houses had already been transferred and were suddenly sealed up.
"Elaborate traps are waiting for you everywhere." Li Lianyuan said frankly that the country's laws and regulations cannot be comprehensive, and there will always be some "gap" to give bad businesses a chance.
At the same time, such cases have many characteristics such as the difficulty of mediation, the complicated standardization process, and the difficulty in determining the authenticity of new types of evidence, making it difficult to defend rights.
To this end, Li Lianyuan suggested that young people who need to buy a house follow the steps below to buy and sell houses-check the intermediary’s business license, qualification certificate, tax registration certificate and the intermediary’s own real estate agent qualification certificate. Before choosing a house, I have a basic understanding of the real estate transaction process and charging standards. Attestation of real estate certificates and co-owners of property rights, and grasp the status of property rights. Before deciding, make a site visit to learn about the year the house was built, the structure of the residents in the community, and the payment of property fees. After mastering it, meet with the landlord to negotiate a price and settle all charges. Take the real estate certificate and ID card with the landlord and go to the Housing Management Bureau for verification to find out whether the house has mortgage, loan, pledge, and whether it can be traded. After entering the trading process, fund supervision is required. Finally, go through the relevant procedures required for transfer in accordance with national regulations.
Zhang Xiaochen suggested that young people choose a larger intermediary company as much as possible when buying a house. "Large companies have high operating costs, and once their credibility is damaged, it is difficult to recover. Therefore, they have a relatively complete corporate culture and pay more attention to the quality of employees. Intermediary individuals also hope to engage in this job for a long time and keep customers for a long time." He also suggested that young people understand the terms of the contract, transaction procedures, and various fees before signing a contract. When it comes to fund exchanges, bank transfers are required, and third-party supervision is required for large amounts.
“Most of the problems with young buyers buying houses are because they did not carefully review the contracts.” Real estate dispute lawyer Feng Ting suggested that buyers pay attention to written contracts instead of verbal agreements. In particular, it is necessary to clearly stipulate in the contract the delivery time, housing accessories, payment time, and how the buyer and seller will cooperate.
"Housing" is too much to guard against, and the entire real estate industry also urgently needs to be regulated. Li Lianyuan said that currently, the functions of government departments are shifting from supervision to service, leading to the lack of supervision of the real estate market. Therefore, the market urgently needs to establish a long-term joint supervision mechanism involving multiple departments.
Feng Ting believes that the current second-hand housing market contracts are complicated and every intermediary company can draw up commercial housing sales contracts. Some unreasonable contract terms are difficult for young buyers to distinguish, causing many problems. She proposes that the state uniformly regulate the standard contract of the second-hand housing market.
In addition, Li Lianyuan encourages consumers to report to relevant departments in a timely manner when they encounter unfair transactions, so as to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Zhang Xiaochen suggested that the honor code and red-yellow line system should be implemented in the industry, and the industry atmosphere should be cleared through certain restrictions, so that real estate agents can have more professional "sense of identity" and buyers have a "sense of security".
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Wang Hao Shi Jia Source: China Youth Daily
Edition 08 on July 31, 2020