The HK$5m shop that turned out to be a wall
A woman who thought she was buying a HK$5 million ground-floor shop in Kowloon City turned out to have paid for only an external wall suspected of being an illegal structure.
Christina Tse, 62 (pictured), is trying to reclaim her HK$300,000 deposit but the seller, a privately registered company called Well Partner Limited, has refused to refund her and insists on going ahead with the transaction.
'The real estate agent called it a shop, and I saw it as one. I was tricked,' Tse said.
Well Partner bought the wall at Genius Court in Fuk Lo Tsun Road, for HK$1 million in October. It then constructed a small space adjoining the wall, which is now being leased to a property company, despite warnings from Genius Court's management company that the space was public and did not belong to the estate.
Well Partner could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The space was originally a loading zone next to an entrance to a car park, separated from the footpath by a wall, which was knocked down and rebuilt as the tiny shop now occupied by the property broker.
Tse found she had bought only a wall adjoining the broker's office when she contacted Genius Court's management company.
'I didn't understand parts of the contract written in English. I didn't know the shop was a fake, it made me sleepless for nights,' she said. Tse said she had wanted to buy a shop to lease it out after returning to Hong Kong from Canada. She sought legal advice only after paying a HK$300,000 deposit and signing a provisional agreement with Midland Realty. The agreement states, in English, that the premises are a portion of an 'external wall'.
Midland Realty did not reply to requests for comment yesterday.
Tse has asked a district councillor and the incorporated owners for help. 'I will take necessary legal action to get back the deposit,' she said.
The building's management company has been trying to stop the original owner from constructing the 'shop' since the end of last year. It had issued warning letters and sent a lawyer's letter, to which Well Partner has not responded.
It was planning to take further legal action, a company spokesman said yesterday.
Since November the building's incorporated owners have complained several times to the Buildings Department. After inspecting the site, the department said it was safe and there was nothing it could do.
The department said it was checking records to determine whether the wall was an illegal structure.
