What’s New in the 2024 Supreme People’s Court report to the National People’s Congress? | Supreme People's Court Monitor

Leading Supreme People's Court observer Susan Finder has a lot to report about the annual report of 

China's high court''s report to the legislators at the National People's Congress.

But what struck me was the attention to housing, especially in light of the Evergrande bankruptcy.  That mega-developer's collapse left in the lurch thousands who had pre-paid for apartments never built.

And, of course, the pandemic lockdowns and demand spurred by relaxed birth control policies have created demand and construction slowdowns.

- GWC

What’s New in the 2024 Supreme People’s Court report to the National People’s Congress? | Supreme People's Court Monitor

By Susan Finder and Zhu Xinyue

III   Safeguarding and Enhancing People’s Livelihood through  Active Justice

The section title above replaces “The Path of Judicial Services for the People With Chinese Characteristics” in the 2023 report.

New themes introduced include “Supporting Guaranteed Delivery of Commercial Housing and Stable Livelihoods,” to deal with issues related to the ongoing crisis involving real estate developers.

• Safeguarding Housing Rights: The financial collapse of many real estate developers has meant disputes along the real estate development supply chain. A 2023 SPC judicial interpretation prioritizes homebuyer rights, clarifying the order of claim repayment in disputes over unsuccessful delivery of sold commercial housing.
• Strengthening Housing Pre-sale Supervision: The SPC issued Judicial Suggestion No. 1 to promote contract online signing and pre-registration, enhance pre-sale funds supervision for commercial housing, strengthen pre-sale information inquiries, and warn about home buying risks.  [These suggestions do not seem to have been made public.]
• Restructuring the Financial Chain of Homebuying: In response to a financial chain rupture of a private real estate enterprise in Hunan Province, a court-facilitated restructuring revitalized 16.8 billion yuan, resolving housing delivery issues for 16,000 households by facilitating the merger and restructuring of 13 related companies.  This type of case was mentioned in a typical case that the SPC issued last year.