Sympathy over 'haunted house'

3gzylon 2014-08-13

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2014-08-13 11:27 Shanghai Daily Web Editor: Si Huan

House buyers who are unwittingly sold a home where a murder or suicide took place have more legal redress these days, a Shanghai lawyer has said.

The attitudes of courts have changed in recent years and are now more sympathetic to the buyer, Shanghai housing lawyer Zhao Xinghai told the Labor Daily.

Zhao gave an example of a client of his who purchased a house in the Pudong New Area for 1.39 million yuan (US$ 225,710), only to be told by neighbors that a former tenant murdered his mother and brother in the property.

After this incident, the house owner had asked an estate agency to sell the property.

Having not been informed of this, the buyer, surnamed Zeng, took legal action and the Pudong New Area People's Court found in his favor.

It ruled that the contract between the two sides should be canceled, for although the house was not damaged, living there would be detrimental to the occupants lives.

"The agency concealing the murder is against its commitment on honesty, which was also a factor the court took into consideration," Zhao said.