【Case Introduction】

In April 2017, a certain Real estate development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "a company") invested and constructed part of the commercial housing in Xinwuli District, Hanyang District, Wuhan City, and Wuhan International Expo Center B8 (Phase III of Radio and Television Lanting Shenghui) for sale.

During the sales period, a company and the purchaser The buyer signed the "Wuhan City Commodity Housing Sales Contract" and "Interior Decoration Entrustment Contract". The "Wuhan City Commercial Housing Sales Contract" stipulates that the building area and the building area are composed of the inner area of ​​the suite, the shared building area of ​​public parts and shared housing, House price is calculated according to the construction area and so on.

Agreement in the "Interior Decoration Commission Contract" The service content of the contract is as follows: a company accepts the entrustment of the house buyer and arranges a qualified decoration construction unit to be fully responsible for the decoration of the house. The house decoration fee is calculated according to the construction area, and the decoration unit price is 3,000 yuan/㎡; the delivery standard and time are agreed For: A company will deliver commercial houses that meet the decoration standards of this contract to buyers before May 31, 2019.

September 5, 2018 A company has obtained the project completion acceptance record certificate for the developed project.

June 25, 2019 Zhongheng Insurance Appraisal Co., Ltd. accepted the entrustment of 200 owners of the real estate buyers in the real estate, and evaluated the house decoration cost of the commercial houses involved in the purchase on May 31, 2019. The evaluation price was lower than the contract Decoration price.

The 200 household owners request this The appraisal report confirmed the actual decoration value of the houses purchased by each of them, and jointly filed a lawsuit with the court in 2019, requesting the court to order: 1. A company compensates the difference between the actual decoration value of the building area in the apartment and the agreed decoration price; 2. A company Compensation for the decoration of the public part and shared housing area; 3. Guangdian Real Estate Company (abbreviated) shall bear joint and several liability for compensation; 4. The litigation expenses shall be jointly and severally borne by the two defendants.

A lawyer accepts the commission of a defendant company , as the company's first-instance and second-instance attorney, defended 99 of the 200 litigation cases.

The 99 cases have been tried, The court of first instance ruled to reject the claim on the grounds that "the claim of the plaintiff (that is, the owners of the 99 households) has no factual and legal basis". The plaintiffs in 99 cases were dissatisfied with the judgment and appealed. The second-instance court held that "the first-instance judgment clearly identified the facts and applied the law correctly", and ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment.

【Agent opinion】

< span style="color: #333333; --tt-darkmode-color: #A3A3A3;">The lawyer representing the defendant Wuhan Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. issued the following agency opinion:

1. In this case, the owner and The "Wuhan City Commodity Housing Sales Contract" and "Interior Decoration Commission Contract" signed by a certain company are the true intentions of both parties, and there is no violation of the mandatory provisions of the law, and they should be legal and valid.

(1) For a certain company Word:

A company has legal The development qualification of the project, the laws and regulations on the pre-sale of commercial housing have been completed when the contract is signed with the owner. corresponding obligations in the contract.

(2) 99 owners As far as the party is concerned: the validity of the two contracts is recognized.

The owner is voluntary, paid, On the basis of equivalent services, two contracts were signed, which reflected the true intention of both parties. When the house was delivered on schedule, the owner was satisfied with the acceptance and accepted the house.

The owner is in the appeal 1. The words used in the two claims are "compensation" and the facts and reasons of the complaint believe that a certain company has "constituted a serious breach of contract", that is, the owner believes that the contract is valid, otherwise there is no claim of liability for breach of contract.

Second, there is no breach of contract by a certain company Behavior, there is no need to bear the responsibility for breach of contract.

The owner claims that a company breached the contract He believes that the quality of the entrusted decoration is not good, and he unilaterally entrusts an assessment agency to make an assessment, and the cost is lower than the entrusted contract price:

(1) "Interior Decoration Commission The decoration price stipulated in the contract is the result of negotiation between the two parties and does not need to be determined based on unilateral evaluation.

The 3,000 yuan agreed in the contract The decoration unit price and decoration price are calculated according to the construction area, which is based on the negotiation between the two parties and the true intention expressed, and there is no situation of non-performance. This reflects the freedom of contract, and the contract agreement cannot be changed due to unilateral evaluation.

The "Interior Decoration Commission Contract" is different For construction contracts, it is not necessary to rely on cost appraisal to give the final settlement cost.

(2) Contractual obligations A certain company It has been fulfilled and there is no breach of contract.

According to the terms of the contract, "Indoor The contractual obligations of a company in the Renovation Entrustment Contract include the selection of the construction unit and the completion of the entrusted decoration, and delivery to the owner in accordance with the delivery standards. The content of the entrustment does not exist based on the evaluation, but is the result of the agreement and negotiation between the two parties.

The decoration quality of the commercial housing involved in the case does not exist The problem is that the owner did not come up with the basis for the poor quality of the decoration. The unilateral evaluation report is not a project quality appraisal but an evaluation report of the construction cost. It is logically confusing to prove the quality problem based on the fact that the construction cost evaluation price does not match the contract price and thus claiming a breach of contract. .

(3) Owners of 99 households The room has been received normally.

The owner shall follow the The form of the house and the sign-in process have completed the acceptance of all decoration equipment and facilities except for the problems raised on site.

The contract formed by the two parties based on the decoration commission relationship, the main obligation of the owner is to pay the consideration, and the main obligation of a company is to complete the delivery obligation in accordance with the entire content of the entrusted service, and the owner has completed the acceptance of the entrusted service, and the main rights and obligations of this contract have been fulfilled.

Third, the owner advocates "indoor The delivery standard of the Decoration Entrustment Contract is equivalent to the "Wuhan Commodity Housing Sales Contract" in many places, and there is no basis for unfairness.

When the contract is valid, The terms of the two contracts clearly state that the contract price is based on the unit price and the building area, and the building area clearly includes the sharing of public parts and shared housing. The owner signed the two contracts voluntarily and knowingly.

These two contracts deliver standard parts The overlap is only the overlap of the contract performance content, and has nothing to do with the contract price, nor has any connection with the principle of fairness in civil law.

The owner only cares about individual interests, Developers should consider factors such as the impact of policies such as price caps, market supply and demand, product quality, external support, product promotion, and reasonable profits. The price in the contract is based on market regulation, and there is no violation of the principle of fairness.

【Judgement】

< span style="color: #333333; --tt-darkmode-color: #A3A3A3;">The court of first instance dismissed the claims of the plaintiff (the owner) in 99 cases, and the plaintiff lodged an appeal;

The court of second instance rejected the appeal and upheld original sentence.

【Judgement Documents】

< span style="color: #333333; --tt-darkmode-color: #A3A3A3;">The court of first instance held that the "Wuhan Commodity Housing Sales Contract" and the "Interior Decoration Commission Contract" signed by the owners of 99 households with a certain company were both It represents the true meaning of both parties, does not violate the mandatory provisions of laws and administrative regulations, and is legal and valid.

About the owner requesting compensation from a certain company The actual decoration value of the building area in the suite and the agreed decoration price are based on the "Interior Decoration Commission Contract" signed by the two parties. The total price of the house commissioned decoration service agreed between the owner and a certain company is a lump sum price, and the contract clearly states Note: The owner has fully known and approved the decoration standard and the total lump-sum price of services. Therefore, the owner's claim that the defendant company compensates the difference between the actual decoration value of the building area in the apartment and the agreed decoration price has neither factual nor legal basis, and the court of first instance did not support it.

About the owner requesting compensation from a certain company For the lawsuit claiming for the decoration payment of the shared construction area between the public part and the shared house, the first paragraph of Article 18 of the former Ministry of Construction's "Commercial House Sales Management Measures" stipulates: "Commercial house sales can be priced by unit (unit), or by the unit. area or construction area”, in the “Interior Decoration Commission Contract” signed by the two parties, the two parties clearly agreed that the pricing method of the decoration payment is calculated according to the construction area, which is in line with the above regulations. Therefore, there is no factual and legal basis for the owner's claim, and the court of first instance did not support it. In addition, there is no factual and legal basis for the owner's claim that the defendant Guangdian Real Estate Company should bear joint and several liability, and the court of first instance will not support it.

In summary, the court of first instance rejected the decision Owner's claim.

The owner is not satisfied with the judgment of the first instance, file an appeal.

The court of second instance held that: this case There are two focal issues in the dispute: one is whether a company is liable for compensation for failing to fully perform the "Interior Decoration Commission Contract"; the other is whether the radio and television real estate company bears joint and several liability for compensation.

About the first focus question: The owner believes that a company has not fully fulfilled the "Interior Decoration Entrustment Contract", which is mainly reflected in the "Decoration and Equipment Standards" in Annex IV of the "Commercial Housing Sales Contract" and the "Decoration Delivery Standards" in Annex I of the "Interior Decoration Entrustment Contract". , Doors, balconies, elevators, electrical, public parts and other decoration items agreed standards are the same, a company did not perform the decoration obligations of the above items in the "Interior Decoration Commission Contract". The court of second instance held that Annex IV of the "Commercial Housing Sales Contract" stipulates "a supplementary agreement for full decoration", which shows that the "Interior Decoration Entrustment Contract" is the supplement to the "Commercial Housing Sales Contract". When understanding the content of the contract, it is appropriate to consider the two contracts as a whole , the two contracts do overlap in terms of the textual expression of the decoration standards for some items (such as exterior walls, balconies, doors, elevators, electrical, etc.), but the "Interior Decoration Commission Contract" does not apply to some projects (such as balconies, doors, etc.) ) has made detailed agreements on the decoration standards, and also made supplementary agreements on some items not mentioned in Annex IV (such as kitchens, bathrooms, etc.). As a supplementary agreement, it is necessary and reasonable to have some repetitions in the textual expression of the main contract. If the owner believes that the decoration standards of overlapping projects should not be repeatedly agreed or the agreement is not detailed enough, it should be raised when signing the supplementary agreement, and the claim that a company has not fully performed the "Interior Decoration Entrustment Contract" on this ground is not supported.

The owner also believes that "the seller The model house on display cannot be understood as the basis for the delivery of the building or the basis of the contract" and other standard clauses exempting them from responsibility should be deemed invalid. After investigation, the appendix IV and appendix VI of the "Commercial Housing Sales Contract" signed by both parties are underlined to indicate " The content shown in the promotional materials and display model rooms and sand tables is not an offer or commitment by the seller, is not an integral part of the contract between the buyer and the seller, and will not have a major impact on the determination of the house price." "The house decoration standards, unit structure, etc. The contract and the appendix shall prevail. The seller shall not bear any responsibility to the buyer for the documents, drawings, etc. other than this contract and this supplementary agreement." hinted. Accordingly, the court of second instance held that a certain company had fulfilled its duty of reasonable reminder to the above-mentioned exemption clause, and the owner’s claim to return the difference in decoration price by using the model house as the decoration standard lacked legal basis. The "Interior Decoration Entrustment Contract" stipulates that the total price of the entrusted decoration service is a lump-sum price, and the owner signs and confirms the contract price and the decoration standard. On the premise that there is no evidence that the house delivered by a company violates the decoration standard agreed in the contract, the owner party There is no factual and legal basis for claiming compensation for the difference between the actual decoration value of the building area in the suite and the agreed decoration price, as well as compensation for the decoration payment for the shared building area of ​​the public part and shared housing, and the court of second instance did not support it.

Regarding the second focus question, Based on the discussion of the first focus issue, a certain company does not need to bear the liability for compensation, and the owner’s appeal requesting that the broadcasting and television real estate company assume joint and several liability for compensation cannot be established.

【Case Analysis】

< span style="color: #333333; --tt-darkmode-color: #A3A3A3;">1. Correctly measure the relationship between price and value.

The buyer is signing with the developer The fine decoration contract is the true intention of both parties, and there is no clause that violates the prohibitive provisions of laws and regulations, and does not damage public order and good customs. Then unless the developer seriously breaches the contract, the quality of the fine decoration cannot meet the delivery standard. The form of appraised value overturns the contract price of both parties. This view has neither legal support nor contract clause support, nor is it supported by the court.

The owners of 99 households in this case think that the renovation The price does not match the reality, that is, the cognitive conflict between the decoration price and value. As an individual, a house buyer only pays attention to his own rights and interests, while a developer pays attention to and considers the overall rights and interests composed of several consumers. The decoration price paid by a house buyer is not only affected by the value of the individual interior decoration, but also includes the relationship between supply and demand in the market , Product quality, external support, product promotion, packaging, reasonable profit, brand value and other factors. Unless the actual situation of the seller at the time of delivery is extremely inconsistent with the advertised or contracted brand, materials, specifications, etc., and there are problems with the quality of the decoration, it will be difficult to obtain court support for a claim for a refund if the actual value of the decoration is lower than the decoration price agreed in the contract.

Second, about the public part and shared Homebuyers are paying double for the refined decoration of the housing apportionment floor area?

Home buyers for their own interior decoration Litigation for the return of decoration costs that have been double borne by the shared area is also an important area of ​​disputes in recent years.

Given that the shared area is used as the building area Part of it has been integrated into many sales and valuation rules, and the construction area as the valuation rule clearly exists and is protected in our country, so the house buyer must clearly raise objections when signing the refined decoration contract. Disagreement about the price of some decorations or the repetition of the agreement needs to be negotiated when signing the contract, otherwise you can refuse to buy this kind of refined decoration house. The developer should also clearly inform the buyers of the pricing method and basis for the decoration price, as well as the clear and detailed delivery standards. Otherwise, it will be difficult to get support for the defense of the claim of "double payment" by the home buyers.

Third, the impact of this case on similar groups in the future The handling of sexual litigation has reference significance.

Real estate disputes are accompanied by market conditions, New changes in macro-control policies, increased awareness of rights protection, gap in psychological expectations of home buyers, housing price control and other factors have made the current real estate market more serious group lawsuits. This type of dispute involves a large number of people, involves a large amount of subject matter, is difficult to deal with, and the outcome of the lawsuit directly affects the profit cost and brand reputation of real estate companies.

This case is of reference value because it The developer in the case does not have any violations of laws and regulations. The owner attempts to unilaterally deny the contract through the right of litigation based on the psychology of being at a disadvantage. The right of litigation is abused and judicial resources are wasted. In a weak position; being dragged into litigation procedures, in addition to the loss of time, normal operations will also be severely affected, and the capital chain is at risk of breaking, causing unimaginable direct or indirect losses to the company. Due to the characteristics of the mass litigation case that "one action can affect the whole body", the judgment result of this case has also laid a good foundation for the proper handling of subsequent similar cases to a certain extent, and it is convenient to clarify the actual appeal and real purpose of the owners of the mass litigation , to facilitate the overall coping strategy.

【Concluding remarks and recommendations】

Real estate group lawsuits have a huge impact on the interests of real estate companies, so real estate companies should pay enough attention to this, such cases are important It is complex and involves many factors. Real estate companies need to form an effective prediction for such cases, sort out the information of the owners involved in the lawsuit, consider it holistically, have an overall concept, and comprehensively grasp and measure the results of individual cases and overall group lawsuits.

Related legal knowledge:

Can witnesses submit evidence in court

The parties can submit evidence in court of. But there needs to be a good reason.

Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China "

Article 139 Parties' Right to Hearing

Parties can propose new evidence of. With the permission of the court, the parties may question witnesses, appraisers and inquests. If a party requests a new investigation, appraisal or inspection, whether to allow it or not shall be decided by the people's court.

The Supreme People's Court on the implementation of the "China Interpretation of Several Issues in the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic

Article 222 During court proceedings, if a party, his defender, or an agent ad litem applies for notifying a new witness to appear in court, obtaining new evidence, or applying for re-authentication or inspection, he shall provide the name of the witness, the place where the evidence is stored, and explain the evidence to be proved. The facts of the case, and the reasons for requesting a new appraisal or inspection. If the court deems it necessary, it shall agree and announce the postponement of the trial; if it does not agree, it shall explain the reasons and continue the trial.

A case that has been postponed is in line with criminal Where it is stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 202 of the Procedural Law, it may be reported to the people's court at a higher level for approval to extend the trial period.

The people's court approved the application for re-appraisal , an appraisal shall be entrusted in a timely manner, and the appraisal opinion shall be notified to the people's procuratorate, the parties, their defenders, and litigation representatives.