UPON returning to Shenzhen after 15 years living overseas, a man surnamed Chen found the land he had inherited from his family has been occupied by someone else, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

The land Chen inherited from his family is located in Dabutou Village, Longhua District. The village is now undergoing an urban renovation project.

Chen, who left Shenzhen in 2000, came back to the city in 2015 and found that two 16-story buildings had been constructed on his land and the property ownership was in someone else’s name.

He later found that while he was away, an acquaintance of his surnamed Zhang colluded with Chen Chunxian, chairman of the board of the collective company of the villagers, to trick his mother, named Cai Zhurong, into selling Chen’s land.

Cai claimed that Zhang and Chen Chunxian coaxed her into signing a contract to sell the property to them and then built the two buildings. Zhang owns the properties covering 320 square meters in the buildings.

Zhang later admitted that they had forged the date of the contract and claimed Chen Chunxian made her talk Cai into signing the contract. She did not pay Cai as promised.

Chen filed complaints against Zhang and Chen Chunxian with the authority in Longhua District. Chen managed to reclaim the property covering 660 square meters in March 2016 under the premise of dropping his complaints within three days.

However, the dispute did not end. In July 2016, Chen said he had received new evidence to prove that Zhang and Chen Chunxian had swindled him and his family. Chen tore up the agreement he had signed before and demanded more compensation.

Providing multiple documents and records, Chen stated that the area of the land he had owned, as shown on the various documents, was different. Although the initial land contract was 120 square meters, his mother sold the land as 200 square meters. The agreement he signed in March 2016 showed the land was only 120 square meters.

Chen said he could not abide by the agreement and wanted to reclaim one-third of the area in the buildings, totalling 1,100 square meters. The area of the properties is closely linked with government compensation when it comes to the urban renovation project.

Chen Chunxian insisted that Chen had only 120 square meters of land and that they had used extra spare land near Chen’s to build the two buildings.

The work station of Song-yuanxia Community, where the village is located, is investigating. (Zhang Qian)