A HOMEOWNER was ordered by a Luohu court to fulfill her home-sale contract by transferring ownership of the apartment to the buyer. She had to pay all court fees, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

    The ruling was the first of its kind in Shenzhen after the city has seen an increase in the number of homeowners who are reneging on home-sale contracts in the face of skyrocketing home prices over the past few months.

    The homeowners are earning more money after breaching the contracts even after paying the fines and selling their apartments at higher prices.

    In the Luohu case, the buyer, going by the alias Wang Feng, signed a home-sale contract with the homeowner, a Hong Kong woman, March 8 to buy an apartment in Huixin Garden in Luohu District for 2.15 million yuan (US$345,660) — 32,000 yuan per square meter.

    On the same day, Wang paid the woman 50,000 yuan as a deposit. He also transferred 570,000 yuan to an escrow account at China Merchants Bank as a down payment April 3, after the bank signed an agreement of money supervision for pre-owned home trading with the two parties.

    The owner told the bank to stop the money supervision May 3 when the bank was about to approve the buyer’s mortgage application. She said she broke the deal because her family didn’t agree to sell the apartment. The average prices of homes in the estate soared to 38,000 yuan per square meter since March.

    The owner tried to pay Wang 100,000 yuan as a fine for breaching the contract, but Wang rejected it and filed a lawsuit with the Luohu District People’s Court asking the owner to honor the contract and to pay another 200,000 yuan as compensation.

    The court upheld the contract and ordered the owner to transfer her apartment to Wang.

    The verdict noted that Wang qualified to buy the apartment and had fulfilled his obligations, but the homeowner clearly refused to uphold her end of the contract and was responsible for breaching the contract.

    The court rejected Wang’s demand for 200,000 yuan in compensation since he failed to provide proof of any loss.

    The homeowner had to pay over 10,000 yuan in court fees, litigation fees and attorney fees.

    Hu Weigang, an attorney in the case, said the homeowner clearly refused to sell the apartment, which made it easier to judge the responsibility of the owner and shortened the trial time.

    Zhou Zhengfeng, a lawyer at Baocheng Law Firm, said that buyers should also be aware of potential risks such as high tax fees if they choose to sell their home. (Zhang Yang)