Wrong Apartment Fixed For $30k, New Home Owner Out Of Luck
The wrong apartment was fixed for €23,000, or approximately $30,000 USD, before the new home owner realized he was dumping money into an apartment owned by someone else.
Gui Lizhong was sold flat 4-2 in a new development in Chongqing, China before the numbers were installed onto the doors. He spent around $30k fixing, renovating, and decorating the wrong apartment before finding out that he actually owned the empty shell across the hall.
According to The Metro, Gui Lizhong only realized he had mistakenly decorated 4-1 when when the real apartment owner, Long Nengyun, turned up and produced paperwork showing he was the owner:
“Why are you staying here? I bought this house in 2011.”
According to The Independent, Gui Lizhong said that the error was the fault of the saleswoman who sold him the apartment:
“My first reaction was the man made a mistake. However the man then produced his apartment purchase contract. I was stunned, as in his contract, he owns the apartment I am living in. I viewed the house twice before I signed the contract. The property agent showed me this particular unit.”
The saleswoman denied his version of events, claiming it was his own mistake to renovate the wrong apartment. The real owner of the apartment is refusing to swap out apartments despite Gui Lizhong having spent so much time and money on the wrong apartment.
In a situation where the wrong apartment was fixed for $30k, what do you think the local government should do? Should the real owner be forced to swap apartments or is Gui Lizhong out of luck?
