Prefabricated House Scam Cases
Prefabricated house scam cases mainly include low-priced 'project-offset housing' scams, rural house-building price traps, and 'tricks' in disputes over the construction quality of prefabricated houses, etc..
Low-priced 'project-offset housing' scams: A retired elderly person was introduced by an acquaintance to buy low-priced 'project-offset housing'. After visiting the property and paying a deposit, the other party switched to a private account for payment and issued a purchase contract stamped with the seal of a construction enterprise. The elderly person transferred a total of over 3 million yuan, but the delivery of the house was repeatedly delayed. The elderly person found the developer to verify and learned that the remaining payment had not reached the developer's account. After filing multiple civil lawsuits, only a small amount of the deposit was recovered, and an unrelated construction enterprise was even mistakenly sued. Two scammers conspired to commit fraud due to huge gambling debts, forging purchase contracts and impersonating financial personnel of the developer. The money obtained from the scam was completely squandered. This scam took advantage of the elderly person's desire for low-priced property and trust in the introduction by an acquaintance, using means such as forging contracts and impersonating identities to carry out the fraud.
Rural house-building price traps: Ye signed a contract with a new material company in Jiangsu, agreeing on the estimated building area and total construction price of a villa. After the company had built the frame structure of the villa, it informed Ye that the actual area and total price exceeded the estimates and demanded payment of progress payments based on the new total price. Ye did not agree, leading to a dispute, and the company stopped construction. As a professional market entity, the company's claim that the actual area exceeded the estimated area by an error clearly beyond a reasonable range, and its refusal to adjust the house design and construction plan after more than a year of work stoppage and multiple consultations constituted a fundamental breach of contract. In this case, the company took advantage of information asymmetry and contract loopholes to obtain more money by inflating the area and total price.
'Tricks' in disputes over the construction quality of prefabricated houses: A construction company signed a construction agreement with Zhang. After installing the prefabricated cement house, Zhang paid most of the fees, with the remaining part unpaid. When the construction company demanded payment, Zhang claimed that the cement house had quality issues such as water leakage and cracking, and that the remaining amount was a discount after bargaining. Although this case does not clearly indicate a scam, it reflects that some construction companies may take advantage of villagers' lack of legal knowledge during the rural house-building process, setting loopholes in contract signing and performance, and using quality issues as an excuse to trigger disputes.
