Buying a house in Shenzhen and facing double-selling of one property / difficulty transferring title for small-property-rights housing? A guide to protecting your rights in real estate disputes.

Last month, a 58-year-old woman found Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, her voice anxious over the phone: "Lawyer Shen, I bought a small property-rights house in Longhua, Shenzhen, and lived there for 6 years. Now the original owner has gone back on his word, saying the contract is invalid and wants it back. I've put my entire life's savings into this, and my child's schooling depends on this house. What should I do?" She is not an isolated case. In Shenzhen, the average annual claim amount in property dispute cases exceeds 20 million yuan. Small property-rights houses, dual sales of one property, stalled title transfers, contract traps — behind every one of these issues lies a family's hard-earned money. Today, based on 26 years of practice experience, Zhiming Law Firm will explain these issues thoroughly in a Q&A format.
Answer: There are two situations. If both the buyer and seller are members of the same collective organization (for example, villagers from the same village), the contract is valid; if you have an urban hukou and purchase a small property rights house built on rural homestead land, judicial practice mostly finds the contract invalid. But note—an invalid contract does not mean you lose both the house and the money. Under Article 157 of the Civil Code, after a contract is invalid, the property obtained under it shall be returned; the party at fault shall compensate the other party for losses. In recent judgments by Shenzhen courts, when the seller reneges, in addition to refunding the purchase price, they are usually also required to compensate 60%-80% of the appreciated value of the house. Zhiming Law Firm once represented a group case involving small property rights houses in a Futian village—32 homeowners were sued by the sellers, who claimed the contracts were invalid and demanded the return of the houses. Through presenting evidence of the sellers' years of acquiescence and fault allocation, the court ultimately confirmed the 32 homeowners' right to use the houses and ordered the sellers to compensate each homeowner between 200,000 and
Answer: This is the most common pitfall in new and second-hand home transactions in Nanshan and Bao'an districts of Shenzhen. Let's start with the conclusion: whoever completes the registration of transfer first gets the house; those who don't get the house can claim to rescind the contract, demand double return of the deposit, and seek compensation for price difference losses. The legal basis is Article 597 of the Civil Code: if the seller fails to obtain the right of disposal, preventing the transfer
Answer: First check whether the contract stipulates a deadline for the transfer of ownership. If not, you can send a written demand, giving
Answer: Yes, it can. If the seller intentionally conceals the fact that the house has been seized or mortgaged, this constitutes fraud. Under Article 148 of the Civil Code, if a party induces the other party to perform a civil legal act against their true intent through fraudulent means, the defrauded party has the right to request the people's court or arbitration institution to revoke the act. After revocation, the seller must return the full purchase price and pay liquidated damages as stipulated in the contract (usually 20% of the total price). In practice, there is a key statistic: about 35% of disputes in Shenzhen's second-hand housing transactions originate from hidden mortgages on the property. There was a client who bought a house in Luohu, Shenzhen, for a total price of 4.2 million yuan, and had already paid a down payment of 2 million before discovering that the property had been mortgaged by the owner to a small-loan company. After Zhi ming Law Firm intervened, we first sent a lawyer's letter demanding the release of the mortgage, but the other party refused to cooperate. We then filed a lawsuit in court to revoke the contract and simultaneously placed a freeze on another property owned by the
Buying a house is a major matter, and there are many pitfalls. If you are facing issues such as confirmation of small property rights housing, dual sales of one property, obstacles to transfer, or contract fraud, it is recommended that you come to our office for a face-to-face discussion with your contract and evidence as soon as possible. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm is located at Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, No. 2 Shixia North Second Street, Futian District, Shenzhen. Director Shen Jinlong, a lawyer with 26 years of practice experience, specializes in real estate dispute cases and has handled over 10,000 cases in total. Bring your materials, talk things through first, and then take action. Consultation hotline: 0755-25986969.