Beginning in May next year, standard contracts will provide pre-sale homebuyers better protection in disputes with developers who get into financial difficulty.
In the past, disputes over sales of uncompleted housing property — known as pre-sales real estate — between developers and homebuyers occurred when residential projects scheduled to be completed by a certain date were not delivered as promised, or when developers ran out of money and collapsed.
With the introduction of official standard contracts by the Consumer Protection Commission and the Ministry of the Interior that clearly establish contract guarantees, the government hopes to minimize disputes surrounding pre-sale homes, the commission’s legal division director Chiu Hui-mei (邱惠美) said.
Real-estate developers can agree to the ministry-established contract guarantee or provide an alternative form of guarantee, as long as the developer obtains consent from the homebuyer. For instance, a developer could promise in the pre-sales real-estate contract to refund homebuyers in the event the firm fails to deliver the property.
Another alternative is for the developer and buyer to agree that the money paid by the homebuyer goes directly into a trust fund to avoid buyers running the risk of having the funds siphoned off or not returned if the terms of the sales contract are violated.
The developer could also provide contract guarantees by partnering with another developer and guaranteeing that the partner company would deliver the product in the event of bankruptcy. In return, the developer could also guarantee to deliver on the partner company’s contract in the event the partner developer goes bankrupt.
The ministry said it would begin counseling businesses, including real-estate developers and construction companies, on the new regulations.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard