What's wrong with this lawyer?!

"Mr. Lv, please let me finish!" Wang Dengfeng continued, "Whether the house is a bad investment or not has nothing to do with the effectiveness of your subscription agreement, you know that."

"Once you sign, the subscription agreement takes effect, and once the money is handed over, the earnest money contract is established."

This is a minor modification to the civil code compared to the previous guarantee law, which specified that an earnest money contract must be in written form, but now it has become an executed contract.

That is to say, even if an earnest money deposit is agreed upon, as long as you don't hand over the money, the earnest money contract is not considered established.

Moreover, normal developers or merchants will include the earnest money in the contract, otherwise it would be difficult to provide evidence if an issue arises.

"So what you're saying now is useless, you know. Just tell the developer you don't want the house anymore, and I'm telling you, you won't get back a penny of your money!"

These days, there are too many disputes about earnest money, from small amounts of a hundred or two to deposits of several hundred thousand, all kinds of wrangling occur.

Ordinary people think I'm a consumer, I've changed my mind, so you have to refund my money, but in fact, the refundable money is called a reservation deposit.

Especially with real estate companies, they have legal affairs departments, and after you clearly state you no longer want it, they often play this move, having you sign an "Earnest Money Refund Application Agreement," and then take back all your documents like the subscription agreement and the earnest money payment receipt.

Normally, we ordinary people would definitely sign it, no problem at all, I don't want it anymore, the company is very formal, everything must go through procedures, so of course, I have to apply, right?

If you don't sign, they'll say they can't process it, so they can't give you the money, with a particularly good attitude.

Once you sign, you're caught in the trap...

This thing is just to solidify the evidence that "you don't want it yourself." After you apply, they will tell you after some time that it didn't go through, on the grounds that you breached the contract.

So what will you do then, sue? They have all the evidence, and this is a unilateral breach of contract. The Civil Code clearly states that if the party providing the earnest money breaches the contract and prevents the purpose of the contract from being realized, the earnest money will not be returned.

At this point, you have no way out, a trap set by legal professionals, don't expect to climb out of it, once you sign this agreement, even Old Tang would lose if he showed up.
Explore new worlds at My Virtual Library Empire

"Then, Mr. Wang, what do you suggest we do?" Lv Ziyang asked again.

"I'll give you two options," said Wang Dengfeng, "one is non-litigation, and the other is litigation. Try not to litigate, if you can resolve it through non-litigation, do so, as there is always a risk in going to court."

"The core idea is this, we must maintain a positive attitude..."

Wang Dengfeng's method is also a common tactic used by lawyers who handle housing deposit cases, based on "The Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Trials of Disputes over Contracts for the Sale of Commodity Houses," Article 4.

If the seller receives earnest money from the buyer through subscription, ordering, or reservation as a guarantee for the formation of a commodity house sales contract, and the contract cannot be concluded due to a party's fault, it should be handled in accordance with legal provisions on earnest money.

If it's due to reasons not attributable to either party that the commodity house sales contract cannot be concluded, the seller should return the earnest money to the buyer.

The key is the latter part—"reasons not attributable to either party"—which is where lawyers have room to maneuver.

If there's no delay, lawyers usually suggest reviewing the presale contract with a very proactive attitude, requesting modifications to any unfair clauses, basically making sure the stance is clear: I definitely want to buy this house, only your terms are unfair.

Of course, the developer wouldn't want to, as this is all standard. What are you as one party to say, just change it because you say so?

Well then, in the end, if no mutual agreement can be reached, this is called "a reason not attributable to either party." Of course, that's assuming the lawyer is capable; after all, it sounds very reasonable when talking about it, but it's not easy to implement in practice.

In any case, Lv Ziyang felt that this Mr. Wang was really capable, speaking very pertinently, and then asked, "So, Mr. Wang, how much would it cost if I asked you to help?"

Wang Dengfeng smiled and said, "I suggest you don't ask me to handle this case; I generally start at thirty thousand just to take on a case."

"This case is also very complicated; if I take it, it won't work without forty thousand."

What? Lv Ziyang and his family looked at each other in shock; the lawyer's fee was much higher than they had imagined.

Wang Dengfeng just watched, he thought providing this consultation was already good enough.

Lv Ziyang wanted to say something, but in the end, did not, simply saying, "Then, Mr. Wang, thank you for this time, I'll pay the consultation fee."

The family, in silence, followed Wang Dengfeng's assistant to the finance department to make the payment.

Finally Lv Ziyang's wife couldn't help but say, "What do we do now? The lawyer's fee is so expensive, if we can't get back that two hundred thousand, how will we buy a house?"

Gnashing his teeth, Lv Ziyang said, "If it doesn't work out, I'll just have to ask Tang Fangjing for help. Although I hardly spoke to him during the four years of college, he was still a classmate..."

He didn't mean it as a moral blackmail; he just felt that if Tang Fangjing got involved, the case would surely be a success...

Just then, a voice spoke up from behind: "Wait, are you Tang Fangjing's college classmate?"