Hundreds of parking spaces are packed and sold to damage the owner. The contract is invalid

□ Our reporter Fan Ruiheng

Nowadays, many people will consider buying a parking space when buying a house, but some people find that the developer has sold a large number of parking spaces to an owner. Is the behavior of the developer legal? Recently, Tianjin Jinnan District People's Court heard a dispute over the parking space sales contract.

The court found that Company A was a real estate project development company in Jinnan District, with 402 commercial houses and 687 parking spaces. In 2022, Company A and Company B signed the Underground Parking Space Use Right Transfer Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement"), which agreed that Company A would transfer the use right of 607 underground parking spaces in the project to Company B at a price of 15 million yuan; Party A agrees that Party B transfers the right to use the above parking spaces to a third party. Party B has the right to change the name of each parking space once before the delivery of the parking spaces. If Party B transfers the right to use the parking spaces separately, it is only limited to the transfer to the owner of the real estate project.

Later, because Company B failed to pay the transfer fee as scheduled, Company A sued to the Jinnan District Court, demanding the termination of the contract and ordering Company B to pay 3 million yuan as liquidated damages according to the Agreement.

The Jinnan District Court believed after hearing that the parking space involved in the case has obtained the construction project planning permit. According to the provisions of the Civil Code and the Civil Air Defense Law, Company A has the right to transfer the right to use the parking space. However, in the building area, the parking spaces and garages planned for parking cars should first meet the needs of the owners. The purpose of signing the Agreement by both parties is not to meet the needs of the owner, and may affect the needs of other owners for parking spaces. Violation of the above legal provisions shall be invalid. Based on the Agreement, Party A requested to terminate the contract and claimed that there was no corresponding basis for Party B to pay liquidated damages, so the judgment rejected all claims of Party A.

Company A objected and filed an appeal. The Tianjin Second Intermediate People's Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

The judge later said that the Civil Code stipulated that the parking space and garage planned for parking cars within the building area should first meet the needs of the owners. If the developer resells a large number of parking spaces to a single or a few owners, which obviously exceeds the reasonable needs of the transferee owners, the behavior of hoarding parking spaces for resale will damage the rights of most owners.

At the same time, the civil air defense parking space is the civil air defense project used for parking vehicles at ordinary times, and the ownership belongs to the state. It cannot be sold, and the right of use can be transferred and circulated. The developer, as the construction unit of the civil air defense parking space, can enjoy the right to use and the right to benefit from the parking space after the civil air defense engineering department goes through the filing and registration procedures. The developer of such parking space can only be used for lease. The period of signing the Civil Air Defense Parking Space Lease Agreement between the developer and the buyer shall not exceed 20 years. After the lease period expires, both parties need to renew the lease contract.

key word: owner pack Invalidation of contract agreement Developers