Still Point

Update: I have seen two more shows on CCTV 2 about people getting screwed after purchasing a house before it is built. In the last two days I saw stories about the “new middle/upper class” in Yunnan and Sichuan losing their entire investment, and they have no one to turn to for help. The shows are overly dramatic with sappy soundtracks, which to me seems inappropriate for such a topic. (Is it a news story, or is it a drama to sell ads?)

It is still odd to me why a homeowner’s only option with such a serious crime is to contact the state-run television network to get answers. Obviously, the idea is, they run a show on fraud, millions of people see it, then the fraudulent company is pressured into fixing the problem. (Doesn’t it seem like if you started a property/construction company and built faulty houses, you should go to jail? Or at least get hit with a huge lawsuit? Who is accountable? Are these companies in cahoots with the government? The questions — the questions I have in my head…)

Wow, it doesn’t stop
Here are some of the details from yet another show on housing fraud:

- The companies sold single houses to multiple familes
- After the police found out about the crime, they “arrested” people and stopped construction, but the buyers never got their initial down payment back.
- The houses were condemned and construction was never completed, and after waiting two years, these people are still trying to get their money back.
- They marketed these houses as “American style” houses with gardens, backyards, and parks, schools for kids nearby, and were selling them for 1,000,000 RMB (ie, hella expensive in China).
- They’re saying now in China, “house fraud” is one of the biggest problems.

Oh, here’s one I’m familiar with (from a different story about a completed housing complex) — The realtors promised gardens for homeowners, written in the contract. After the gardens were built, the government wanted to widen the road, so they destroyed the gardens, right up to the entrance of the housing complex. When the people complained to the real estate company (”breach of cotnract!”) they replied, “We promised you gardens, but we never said how long you can have these gardens.”