Real Estate Lawsuits Rising

WSJ: Real-Estate Lawsuits Surge in China

Even as the beleaguered property market shows signs of inching out of a two-year property downturn, some home buyers have begun suing property developers over facilities advertised at the time of purchase that were never built. Developers, meanwhile, are taking local governments to court for refunds of money spent to buy land when prices were soaring.

Not only home buyers are suing, but also developers are suing cities:

Developer Ningbo Fuda Co. in March filed suit against the land bureau in Ninghai county in coastal Zhejiang province for a refund on the 1.2 billion yuan ($183.7 million) it paid for land near the city center in 2011.

The lawsuit seeks 1.78 billion yuan in damages and returned interest payments and other fees. Ningbo Fuda filed the suit after its lawyers tried to chase down local authorities for a couple of years, to no avail, said an employee in the chairman’s office.

“We felt that filing a lawsuit would expedite the process from all departments involved,” said the employee. The legal department of Ninghai’s land bureau declined to comment on the case other than to say that “with a market slump, property developers might try to find all sorts of ways to return the land they had earlier bought.”

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