Debtor's plush flat to be auctioned off

By Angela Xu  |   2008-11-20  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A DISTRICT court will auction an apartment valued at 11.56 million yuan (US$1.69 million) in downtown Lujiazui area by the end of the month to force a debtor to clear his dues.

The Huangpu District People's Court will even pay Ma Yuanqiang a monthly amount of 5,000 yuan to enable him to rent a smaller place until the auction is over.

Ma was forced to move out of his high-end riverside apartment in Shimao Riveria Garden on the court's orders in September. This is the first time a local court has forced a debtor to move out of his apartment so that it could be sold off.

Ma owed the Bank of Communications 4.21 million yuan and another 3.36 million yuan to other institutions. When judges tried to trace his bank accounts, they couldn't find any. Ma's family, however, continued to live in the posh 290-square-meter apartment beside the Huangpu River.

"This showed Ma had hidden his property away so as not to pay his debts. His apartment was the only asset we could find," said Liu Tingbi, director of the enforcing court under Huangpu court.

The judges said that sale proceeds from Ma's apartment were expected to clear his debts and also reimburse the rent the court would pay him in the meantime.

On September 25, enforcing judges went to the apartment to order Ma's family to clear their possessions. They found the apartment to be expensively decorated and contain wardrobes full of branded clothes and bags.

Ma, however, demonstrated with his wife against the judges' decision at the gates of the district court. The court detained him for 15 days for causing a disruption.

After Ma was released, the court handed him 5,000 yuan to rent a smaller flat. The court will continue to support him until the riverside apartment is sold, judges said.

In the past, judges were not allowed to force debtors to vacate their apartments if they did not own any other property. As a result, people lived on in expensive flats while refusing to clear their debts.