Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
It’s no secret that everybody loves to ooh and aah over swanky celebrity homes, but as we’ve learned from martial arts superstar Jackie Chan, it can be one big headache if the paperwork isn’t in order.
As they say: mo money, mo problems?
The latest high-profile house-related woe involves Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming and the 36mil yuan (S$7.2mil) Beijing abode he bought seven years ago.
Yesterday (Sep 29), media reports revealed that although the 42-year-old has already paid for the house, ownership has not been transferred to him, resulting in one big mess that left him with no choice but to take the case to court.
(Xiaoming is said to live in the Beijing house with his wife Angelababy and their parents)
It all started in 2013, when Xiaoming signed a sales and purchase agreement for the house with one Zhang Haolong, who was only 13 years old at that time and had been authorised by his parents to handle the transaction (uh, seriously?).
As Xiaoming did not meet the qualifications to buy property in Beijing that year, he was unable to have ownership transferred to his name and registered his mum as the mortgagee.
Xiaoming paid the 36mil yuan in accordance with the contract and started living in the house after renovations were completed.
Over time, the value of the house rose to nearly 100mil yuan (S$20mil), and Xiaoming repeatedly asked Haolong to transfer ownership to him, but the latter deliberately avoided him.
To make matters worse, a court in Changzhi seized the property in December 2017 ‘cos Haolong had mortgaged the house after borrowing money from the bank and failed to repay the loan before the deadline.
This was the third time the place had been mortgaged and seized, so Xiaoming finally decided to sue Haolong, now 20.
(Xiaoming assembled a playground in the living room for his three-year-old son “Little Sponge”)
Ref: Huang Xiaoming Bought His S$20mil Home From A 13-Year-Old Who Refused To Transfer The Ownership, So He Sued The Kid (todayonline)