What is the routine behind the high incidence of housing pension scams?
To prevent such scams, we should raise awareness of risks and laws, and avoid investment traps
The trick of this type of company is to use small favors and small benefits to fiddle with the elderly, and then step by step to follow the elderly's real estate.
Illegal fund-raising agencies are targeting the elderly's real estate, mainly because of the high value of the house. It is more convenient to obtain funds through mortgage and other methods, and the amount is relatively large.
In recent years, with the advent of an aging society, traditional old-age care methods are in urgent need of innovation, which has created new demands such as "house-based old-age care." The beautiful vision of "providing a house for the elderly" has become an excuse for making money.
On February 24, the Supreme People's Court issued ten typical cases of the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly in the people's courts, including cases of "householding for the elderly" and cracking down on "routine loans". Similar cases are not uncommon in real life.
What are the routines behind the high incidence of the "house for the elderly" scam, and how should the elderly guard against it?
Who should pay for this type of scam?
"This house was acquired by us for decades of service. The whole family has only one house and cannot be'cheated away'." Recently, Zhao Hong (pseudonym), who is nearly 60 years old, and many other elderly Xiang Xin A reporter from the Beijing News reported that the company they entrusted to conduct "financial management" with real estate is suspected of a thunderstorm. At present, the company has closed its doors and "run away", and its house is likely to be taken away as a result.
What kind of scam has caused the above-mentioned elderly people to fall into a situation where they lose their property and money?
What is the truth, what should the old people do next?
Party: After the financial management, the interest is only three months, the house may "change ownership"
"Except for this house, we don't have much cash to use. In order to make the family's life better, we want to carry out the so-called'household pension' financial management." On February 25, Zhao Hong reported to the Beijing News reporter. , In November 2018, she suddenly received a call from a company called Harmony Zhongsheng (China) Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Harmony Zhongsheng Company”). The house can also make money, and it can also give birth to a portion of the money to lend to small and micro enterprises.
Zhao Hong said that the above-mentioned Harmony Zhongsheng company promotion staff further introduced to her, “The operation mode is particularly safe, and customers participate in the whole process. You don’t need to pay, just take out the house and make a guarantee. It will not affect the housing or affect the house. If you rent out, you can get some pocket money on time every month. The company will not touch the homeowner’s funds and only earn interest on the difference."
"I didn't want to participate in this financial management, but the staff of Harmony Zhongsheng Company will send me some materials every month and every month to persuade me to participate." Zhao Hong told reporters that one year later, in November 2019, she officially contacted me. The company signed a financial management contract (the specific name is "Investment Consulting Service Agreement").
Another elderly person, Li Guangyi (pseudonym), who was nearly 70 years old, told the Beijing News reporter, “At the beginning, when the service staff of Harmony Zhongsheng Company called me, they claimed that this is called “no-principal financial management”. The income we get is the house. An annual interest rate of 5% of the appraised price will allow the house to generate money."
"In November 2019, the people of Harmony Zhongsheng Company came to inform that the estimated price of my house is more than 3.4 million yuan. The next step is to go to the real estate trading center and other departments to go through the procedures." Li Guangyi recalled, not long after the "procedures were completed", he said Received the first interest, "At that time, the whole family was very happy. The interest of more than 10,000 yuan was paid to the account. The house is still living as usual. We immediately have more trust in this company."
"However, the good times are not long. In the third month after signing the contract, the interest that should have been received has not arrived. The company personnel said that due to the epidemic, it will be delayed for a while." Li Guangyi told reporters, and then in 2020 In June 2008, the staff of the company also said that due to the second epidemic, the payment was postponed again.
"Soon after, something unexpected happened and the chairman of Harmony Zhongsheng Company lost contact. Then, we received a notice from the arbitration department. If we do not repay the loan on time, our house will be forcibly taken away. Our house is likely to become someone else's." Li Guangyi said.
After learning of this news, on September 20, 2020, Li Guangyi and a person who had suffered a similar experience came to Harmony Zhongsheng to ask for an explanation, but the company was already empty.
The beginning of the scam: the house is mortgaged, who will bear the debt?
Regarding the unfortunate experience of Zhao Hong, Li Guangyi and others, what is puzzling is how the so-called "household pension" carried out by Harmony Zhongsheng Company is operated?
What kind of routine is behind this, why is the party’s house already "at risk"?
Zhao Hong introduced to the Beijing News reporter, “After receiving the arbitration application, we carefully checked and realized that after Harmony Zhongsheng Company mortgaged our real estate, it obtained a loan from a third party, and now it is unable to repay the loan, the third party The Arbitration Commission filed an application to enforce our property."
In fact, the real estate mortgage can be seen in the process of going through the formalities.
"At that time, the staff of Harmony Zhongsheng Company asked me to go to the real estate trading center and other departments, and asked me to "sign and sign at that time, which is to go through the procedure." In the end, I was confused and finished the procedure." Li Guangyi told reporters, "Looking back now, Harmony Zhongsheng Company took out a mortgage on our house at that time."
However, from the perspective of the contractual agreement, the "lender" who mortgaged the house is not the Harmony Zhongsheng Company, but the parties such as Zhao Hong and Li Guangyi.
The Beijing News reporter saw in a contract signed with Harmony Zhongsheng Company provided by Zhao Hong that the two parties agreed that Party A (ie Zhao Hong's party), through the evaluation and recommendation of Party B (the party of Harmony Zhongsheng Company), and the lender Reaching a "loan agreement", Zhao Hongyi borrowed funds from the lender.
At the same time, Zhao Hongyi, after obtaining the loan, deposits the loan into the bank account designated by Harmony Zhongsheng, and entrusts Harmony Zhongsheng to provide financial services for him. Harmony Zhongsheng is expected to annualize 5% (that is, 0.416% monthly income). Pay the wealth management income to Zhao Hong.
According to Zhao Hong, her property is more than 70 square meters, and the appraised price is about 6 million yuan. According to the appraisal price, 70% of the loan is 4.2 million yuan. According to the agreement, Harmony All beings will pay her about 17,000 yuan in financial management income every month.
It is worth noting that there is a corresponding clause in the agreement for the liability for breach of contract, “when the borrower cannot repay the principal and interest of the loan as scheduled, the mortgage shall be paid first”.
This also paved the way for the subsequent crisis of the party’s house facing a "changing ownership".
"From a review, the whole process of the operation of Harmony All beings is actually a closed loop." Wang Fang (pseudonym), the party concerned, said, "We follow the arrangements of Harmony All beings and mortgage our house to a third-party lender to obtain a loan. People’s borrowing. Then, in accordance with the operation of harmonious sentient beings, we handed this loan to the harmonious sentient beings to dispose of, and then the harmonious sentient beings gave us'interest' as agreed.”
Wang Fang further introduced, “Now, the repayment time agreed upon between us and the so-called lender has come, but Harmony Zhongsheng has no ability to pay, it is impossible to return the principal to us, and we can’t afford to repay it. In fact, we are not the real borrowers, but the so-called lenders apply for arbitration with the financial management contract. To realize the mortgage, that is to take our house."
The Beijing News reporter learned through Tianyan that Harmony Zhongsheng Company was established on June 4, 2013, and its current operating status is "Existing". Its business scope includes project investment, asset management, etc., which are specifically stipulated in the business scope column. It is not allowed to promise investors that the investment principal will not be lost or promise a minimum return, etc.
In January 2021, individual employees of the company have been restricted from spending.
According to the above-mentioned parties, some lenders are suspected of "collusion" with Harmony Zhongsheng Company, and some of them are employees of Harmony Zhongsheng Company or relatives of company leaders.
On March 2, a reporter from the Beijing News tried to get in touch with multiple lenders on this matter, but none of them received a response.
Lawyer: Be wary of "retirement with housing" evolving into fraudulent routines
In fact, the above-mentioned "mortgage property financing" scam encountered by Zhao Hong, Li Guangyi and others is not an individual case.
A reporter from the Beijing News noted that on February 19, the Office of the Beijing Municipal Leading Group for Combating Illegal Fund-raising Work issued a document exposing illegal fund-raising scams and traps in the name of "household pension", and many similar cases surfaced. .
Ms. Lu, a citizen of Beijing, was taken to a presentation called "Beijing Zhongan Minsheng Asset Management Co., Ltd." by her acquaintance, and she was told that she only needed to sign an agreement to allow her property to be mortgaged to a small loan company, and she could receive it every month. High pensions in return.
After agreeing, Ms. Lu was arranged by the other party to sign various agreements, and indeed received the "pension."
But a few months later, the loan company began to call for debt collection, and she was forced to sell the house to repay the loan shark.
Ms. Lu was deceived in exactly the same way as Zhao Hong, Li Guangyi and others. In addition, there are other scams in different ways. For example, Ms. Xu in Beijing gave the money for mortgaged real estate to a wealth management company in Chaoyang District for investment. Salesmen Cao and Meng took Ms. Xu to sign various documents.
However, without Ms. Xu’s knowledge, Cao and Meng transferred a large amount of loans to the personal accounts of themselves and their associates.
In response to all kinds of chaos, Qin Bing, the person in charge of Beijing Qin Bing's lawyers team, said that in the true sense of "retirement with housing", the elderly mortgage their property-owned housing to a bank or a specific financial institution and obtain the proceeds for retirement. .
However, in the early stage of the development of "house for the elderly", many lawbreakers took advantage of the "old age panic" common to the elderly and the weak awareness of financial risk prevention, and turned "house for the elderly" into a fraudulent routine and became the hardest hit by illegal fund-raising. .
Qin Bing believes that the above-mentioned experience of Zhao Hong, Li Guangyi and others is suspected to be a typical case of housing pension fraud. In order to invest in "house pension" financial management projects, these elderly people mortgage their own real estate and bear huge debts. Under the malicious collusion of criminals, they lost their own real estate, resulting in the loss of property and property. It is recommended that the relevant parties report the case to the public security department in a timely manner.
In Qin Bing's view, if some lenders are suspected of colluding with harmonious beings to "set up a set" to deliberately damage the rights of third parties, then such contracts are invalid and should be revoked. It is recommended that the Arbitration Commission make a cautious ruling.
■ Anti-fraud tips
How to prevent the scam of housing for the elderly that is "empty of housing and finances"?
At present, my country's pension market is in the ascendant, and fraud traps under the banner of "high-yield" are emerging in endlessly.
Under the salesmen’s brainwashing of sales, the lure of high interest rates, and the malicious collusion of criminals, many elderly people were unable to guard against them, and in the end they even lost their money.
So, how can elderly people who are disadvantaged groups prevent fraud under the guise of "retirement by housing"?
Avoid being fooled by high interest rates, and improve risk and legal awareness
On February 19, the Office of the Beijing Municipal Leading Group for Combating Illegal Fund Raising (abbreviated as "Beijing Anti-Funding Office") unveiled the illegal fundraising scams and traps in the name of "household pension", which used the form of illegal fundraising of "house pension" It boils down to three main characteristics: First, fraudulent methods are seductive under the guise of the state’s “house pension” policy; second, the fraud process is complex, showing the characteristics of division of labor and chaining; third, circumventing the law by notarization. Legal forms cover up illegal purposes.
Regarding the scam model, the Beijing Anti-Fiber Office said, “Such companies and gangs usually introduce wealth management products to the elderly as agents or salespersons of a wealth management company, and persuade the elderly to obtain mortgages through mortgaged real estate and invest in so-called wealth management products. Promise 4%-6% annualized income for the elderly; on the other hand, such companies and gangs will mortgage the elderly’s real estate to a third party, and allow the third party a high interest rate of 12%-24%, and finally collect Take the money and run away after you have enough mortgage."
According to Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, some institutions have set up traps under the names of “house for the elderly” and “elderly-aged apartments” to make many elderly people think that they can get a good old-age income simply by collateralizing their real estate. Being caught in a trap, beware of it.
As a matter of fact, the scam of "providing housing for the elderly" reflects the lack of risk awareness and legal awareness of the elderly.
The elderly must completely dispel the illusion of "pies falling from the sky". As the Beijing Anti-Flag Office prompts, "Keep in mind that high returns come with high risks. Don't trust all kinds of marketing techniques in pursuit of high returns."
Choose investment and financing channels carefully, and be wary of the "please enter the urn" routine
"After some old people were deceived, because the other party had completed the procedures very well, and it was a well-designed scam, it was very difficult to win the lawsuit. Many people couldn't get back the deceived house money in the end." Beijing Jin sued Lawyer Wang Yuchen, the director of the law firm, said so.
As for the deceived person who has become a fact, attorney Wang Yuchen believes that the best way is to report the case and hand it over to the judicial organs for handling.
Li Yujia also said that in addition to reporting the case to the public security organs as soon as possible, it is necessary to report the situation to the community neighborhood committee to see if the elderly in the community have similar experiences, and to find some clues to trace the illegal organization.
However, Li Yujia believes that the most important thing is prevention, because once the fact of fraud is formed, it is really difficult to trace it back.
For the elderly, the Beijing Office of Non-Professional Services reminds that if you have investment needs, please consult your family or other professionals in time, especially in the face of large investments.
For investment projects, we must carefully select, choose formal investment channels, and do our best to investigate projects.
The Supreme People's Court also reminded the elderly to remain rational and calm at all times, and choose investment and financing channels prudently, so as not to fall into the "routine" of "inviting you to enter the urn."
■ Industry recommendations
Industry: Accelerate the advancement of the insurance version of "House for the Aged"
It is worth noting that while the housing pension financial management scams occur frequently, the real housing pension insurance products are unknown.
As an innovative financial product of “house for the elderly”, the “housing reverse mortgage pension insurance” is different from relying on renting out a house for rent or selling a house for pension. The elderly mortgage their own property right house to the insurance company and can continue Live in the house.
When he is alive, he receives a certain amount of pension regularly; after his death, the house is disposed of by the insurance company.
This provides a new way of thinking for the elderly who "have real estate under their name but no cash in their hands".
In 2014, the pilot program of reverse mortgage pension insurance for elderly housing began.
In March 2015, the country's first "House Pension Insurance" product was launched by Happy Life.
However, as of the end of 2020, there are no more than 200 elderly people participating in the insurance version of the old-age pension, and the only insurance companies participating in the pilot and launching products are Happy Life, China Insurance Life, etc.
In fact, at the policy level, the state is actively promoting the implementation of relevant systems.
On January 23, 2020, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and other 13 departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of Commercial Insurance in the Field of Social Services", which pointed out that optimizing the support policy for the elderly housing reverse mortgage pension insurance; establishing and perfecting support for the elderly housing reverse mortgage The contract for the development of pension insurance business grants enforcement effectiveness, differentiated disposal of real estate and other systems to promote the standardized development of related businesses.
From the industry's perspective, if the insurance version of "house-based pension" wants to advance quickly, the top-level system design must be improved as soon as possible to reduce the concerns and risks of participating entities.
In addition, the relevant departments have not done enough to promote the "retirement with housing" before, resulting in a lack of understanding of it. Now we should also speed up the work in this area.
Meng Xiaosu, chairman of Huili Funds, was former chairman of Fortune Life. In his opinion, “the insurance industry has not publicized the results of the housing reverse mortgage pension insurance business. The pilot experience of Fortune Life should be introduced at the appropriate time, including the recent stable and stable returns. The huge long-term potential value is introduced to other insurance companies so that this successful product can be quickly promoted to meet the requirements of the central government to "standardize the development of the third-pillar pension insurance."
Written by/Beijing News reporter Zhang Jian Yuan Xiuli Duan Wenping