The Pudong New Area People's Court terminated the purchase contract for a villa yesterday in its ruling in a lawsuit filed over illegal construction.
The judges said the verdict is a warning to villa owners who illegally expand their villas or build second homes on their property.
"Some people would like to expand the villa by destroying the main structure and some even build a new house beside the villa," said Fang Jun, a judge with the court. "But it is illegal as it will threaten people's security."
The plaintiff surnamed Ma signed a contract with a woman surnamed Wu last December to buy a villa in Beicai Town of Pudong at the price of 1.6 million yuan (US$192,771), after she inspected the villa herself. Later they signed a supplemental contract to change the price to 2.4 million yuan.
When Ma went to deal with the registration procedure this February after she paid 1.68 million yuan, she was told that Wu illegally expanded the villa and the extra construction would be removed.
Ma stopped paying the rest of the money at once and filed a lawsuit on March 31, asking the court to terminate the contract.
"Wu purposely hid the defects of the villa and wanted to shift the legal liability to me," Ma said, adding that Wu received a notice last April to ask her to return the villa to its original appearance.
Wu argued that Ma should have known about the extra construction because she had visited the villa herself.
Ma insisted Wu didn't clarify that the expansion was built illegally.
The accused didn't fulfill her obligation to disclose the villa's defects to the plaintiff as she hid the notice issued by the property management company that required her to remove the extra construction, the judges said.