On March 21, the Beijing Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission issued the "Beijing *** Property-Righted Housing Pre-Sale Contract (Trial)" (referred to as the "Pre-Sale Contract"), "Beijing *** **Announcement on the sale and purchase of existing houses with property rights (Trial)" (referred to as the "Existing House Sales and Purchase Contract") is open to the public to solicit opinions. The public consultation period is from March 21 to March 25, 2022.

In this regard, industry insiders said that the relevant provisions in the above two contracts were detailed on the basis of not violating the current laws and regulations such as the Civil Code and the Civil Procedure Law. ization, thereby making it more standardized, which is more conducive to the development of private property housing projects in Hong Kong and the healthy development of the existing property sales market of property rights housing in Hong Kong.

Highlight 1:

The delivered houses should meet the fire and civil air defense acceptance requirements

It is reported that as early as September 2017, "Beijing *** The Interim Measures for the Management of Property-Righted Housing were promulgated and implemented. In order to standardize the work related to the allotment of property-righted housing, the Beijing Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission simultaneously launched the "Beijing Municipal Property-Righted Housing Pre-Sale Contract", which will be provided as a trial text during the project allotment process. ***Used by property owners and buyers. With the acceleration of the allotment of property rights housing in the country, on the basis of effectively solving the housing difficulties of citizens, some related problems caused by the signing of contracts have gradually emerged. Therefore, the Beijing Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission combined the trial implementation of signed contract texts in recent years to form the "Pre-sale Contract" released this time.

The "Pre-Sale Contract" issued this time adheres to the principle of "protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the buyer and seller" and, in accordance with the relevant provisions of relevant laws and regulations, stipulates the housing pricing method, loan interest rate calculation method, and housing delivery supporting facilities conditions. The content has been modified accordingly. The content of the main contract includes 10 chapters and a total of 28 items including instructions, special reminders, explanations of terms, parties to the contract, basic conditions of the owned housing, and price of the owned housing. The contract attachments include a total of 12 attachments such as the housing use agreement, house floor plan, decoration and equipment standards, etc.

The main content of the "Existing House Sales Contract" is basically the same as the "Pre-Sale Contract", but due to the characteristics of *** existing houses with property rights, compared with the pre-sale contract, *** property rights housing The existing house sales contract does not stipulate how to deal with area differences, changes in planning and design, etc.

In terms of house delivery conditions, the "Pre-sale Contract" stipulates that projects with joint acceptance and projects that do not undergo joint acceptance are stipulated separately, and both stipulate that the houses delivered should meet fire protection and civil air defense requirements. Waiting for the certificate of acceptance.

In the view of lawyer Wang Jiahong, executive director of Beijing Jinliu Law Firm, such regulations have certain positive significance. Wang Jiahong said, “In past practice, it was often only required that the delivered houses meet the conditions for completion acceptance and filing. There were no clear requirements for whether they passed the fire protection acceptance and whether they passed the civil air defense acceptance. Therefore, when many projects were delivered, although they had obtained However, civil air defense projects often have not yet passed the acceptance inspection, and even cannot be used normally at all."

Highlight 2:

The amount of liquidated damages can be agreed upon, and there is no upper limit

At the same time, the "Pre-sale Contract" clearly stipulates that if the house does not meet the water supply, drainage, power supply, and heating conditions when delivered, the developer should bear the responsibility for late delivery. The "Pre-sale Contract" also stipulates that if the house does not meet the conditions for telephone communication, cable TV, and broadband network use at the time of delivery, the developer shall pay liquidated damages to the house purchaser at a daily rate.

“In the past, developers’ pre-sale commercial housing contracts did not include such liability for breach of contract. As a result, in practice, when developers were unable to meet the conditions for the use of relevant facilities and equipment, the contract did not stipulate liability for breach of contract. The rights and interests of home buyers cannot be protected," Wang Jiahong said.

It is worth mentioning that the "Pre-Sale Contract" clearly stipulates the liability for late payment. The buyer and seller can fairly agree on the amount of liquidated damages, and there is no upper limit on the amount of liquidated damages. Wang Jiahong believes that this can prevent the problem of "the developer stipulating an upper limit on the amount of liquidated damages" that appeared in the sales contract of the previous private property project.

Highlight 3:

Indoor air quality must meet specific standards

Compared with previous pre-sale commercial housing contracts, the "Pre-sale Contract" has strict requirements on indoor air quality. Provisions have been made to clearly require developers to meet specific standards, and the names and specific document numbers of the standards must also be listed.

In past practice, there have been huge disputes over air quality standards, mainly because specific standards were not clearly agreed upon in the contract. Regarding air quality testing standards, there are national recommended standards and national mandatory standards. Developers often adopt national mandatory standards because they are relatively low, while recommended standards are more suitable for humane living, but require higher standards.

Appendix 6 of the "Pre-sale Contract" stipulates in detail the decoration, brand, specifications, quantity, equipment and facilities of the public and indoor parts. In this regard, Wang Jiahong said that in the past practice, developers used model houses for publicity, but also stated that "the model houses are not a condition for delivery", and sometimes the agreements on decoration equipment and facilities in the contract were not specific and unclear. After a dispute occurs, the developer cannot be held accountable. The provisions in this aspect of the "Pre-sale Contract" are more conducive to the rights and interests of Poly home buyers.

In addition, the "Pre-sale Contract" clarifies that the buyer should strictly abide by the relevant regulations on the transfer of property rights in Beijing, including that if the buyer has obtained the real estate certificate less than 5 years ago, he is not allowed to transfer the property share of the house. ; If the buyer has obtained the real estate certificate for more than 5 years, he can transfer the property rights share of the purchased house at market price; if the buyer rents out the property with property rights, he should publish the house leasing information on the unified network service platform designated by the municipal agency. ; The buyer shall use the house in accordance with the relevant regulations on housing management in this city and the house sales contract.

Industry: It is conducive to the healthy development of the property rights housing project in *** , different from ordinary commercial housing, this kind of house generally involves more public resources and is a guaranteed housing. Therefore, setting standards for pre-sale contracts and existing home sales contracts for privately-owned houses will not only help safeguard the interests of the majority of home-buying groups, but also help safeguard relevant public interests, thereby preventing individual development companies or individuals from taking advantage of them. The *** property-rights housing project infringes on the "guaranteed space" of *** property-rights housing. For example, individual developers will unilaterally set some contract clauses that are suspected of being "overlord clauses" to maximize their own risks, thus increasing the risks for home buyers and leading to unequal rights and obligations.

Du Wen believes that the relevant provisions in the two contracts, the "Pre-sale Contract" and the "Existing House Sales Contract", are based on the current laws and regulations such as the Civil Code and the Civil Procedure Law. The relevant provisions have been refined to make them more standardized, which will be more conducive to the development of private property projects and the healthy development of the existing home sales market of private property.

In addition, Du Wen pointed out that before the formal implementation of the above two contract templates, disputes arising from private property contracts were generally adjudicated or handled in accordance with previous relevant laws and regulations. After the above two contracts are officially used, these two standardized contracts should be implemented.