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Patsy Moy

A staircase that was removed from a shop more than 14 years ago has become the centrepiece of a lawsuit over the HK$40 million purchase of the store.
In the end, the row over the missing steps cost the would-be buyer a HK$4 million deposit when the Court of First Instance ruled yesterday that the sellers could confiscate the money.
The case was brought by the buyer, the Ho Ching Group, which had refused to complete the sale in June 2012 as scheduled.
The company instead took legal action seeking to declare the sellers had failed to prove good title to the property and its deposit should be returned.
The owners, Tsang Pui-lin, Tsang Wai-man and Carla Tsang Pui-lin, counterclaimed for forfeitures of the deposit.
In a provisional purchase agreement dated March 2012, the Tsangs agreed to sell the shop on the ground floor of Lung Sum Avenue in Sheung Shui, to the Ho Ching Group for HK$40 million.
The agreement stated that there used to be a staircase inside the shop which led to a cockloft as shown in the floor plan. It said the staircase had been removed and that the buyer should not challenge the title on the staircase.
It also showed there was an external staircase to the cockloft - which was not part of the shop deeds.
However, the buyer's lawyer wrote to the cockloft owner asking for confirmation that the absent staircase would never be used as access to the cockloft. The cockloft owner refused to give this confirmation.
In his written judgment, Mr Justice Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor said the removal of the staircase was an infringement of the right of way enjoyed by the cockloft owner.
But he accepted the sellers' argument that the risk of the cockloft owner taking legal action against the shop owner was "fanciful" and did not constitute an encumbrance on the title of the property.
"The staircase had been removed at the very latest shortly before the defendants acquired the property in 1998. There has never been any complaint about the removal of the staircase since then.
"The external staircase has at least since then been used as the means of access to the cockloft," the judgment read.
Dismissing the buyer's claim, the judge added that the cockloft owner must have abandoned the right of way via the inside staircase and accepted the external staircase as its substitute.
 


Phantom steps to cockloft lead to fight over shop sale

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Hong Kong

Buyer loses HK$4m after pulling out of HK$40m deal citing fears over right of access


Phantom steps to cockloft lead to fight over shop sale

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Buyer loses HK$4m after pulling out of HK$40m deal citing fears over right of access

Buyer loses HK$4m after pulling out of HK$40m deal citing fears over right of access