Due to marital discord, Ms. Song signed a home sale contract with Ms. Wang through an agency without her husband Mr. Zhou's knowledge and received the payment. After learning of this, Mr. Zhou sued Ms. Song and Ms. Wang, requesting the court to confirm the contract invalid. Yesterday, the reporter learned that the Changping Court upheld Mr. Zhou's claim.

 

　　The plaintiff Mr. Zhou and the defendant Ms. Song registered their marriage in 2005 and purchased a home in Changping District in 2011. In November 2012, Ms. Song signed a home sale contract with Ms. Wang through a real estate agency and issued a written statement on the spot that any dispute between the spouses after the sale of the home would be borne solely by Ms. Song and had nothing to do with Ms. Wang. A week later, Ms. Wang paid the down payment, and the two parties completed the online signing procedures.

 

　　Mr. Zhou claimed that the home was joint marital property and that his wife's unauthorized sale of the home infringed upon his lawful rights and interests. He therefore filed a lawsuit, requesting that the home sale contract signed by the two be confirmed invalid in accordance with the law.

 

　　Ms. Song said that due to marital discord, the family could break up at any time, and because of financial difficulties, she wanted to sell the home. In addition, both the agency and Ms. Wang knew that the property was jointly owned by the spouses, so she issued the written statement.

 

　　Ms. Wang disagreed. She said that the contract signed with Ms. Song represented her true intent, that more than 97% of the purchase price had been paid, that Ms. Song had said she was the decision-maker in the family, and that the buyer in the pre-sale contract was listed only under Ms. Song's name. As a bona fide third party, the contract should be lawful and valid.

 

　　After trial, the court held that although the ownership certificate for the home in question was registered solely under Ms. Song's name, the home was purchased during the marriage and should therefore be joint marital property. Ms. Song should have informed the plaintiff Mr. Zhou of and obtained his consent for major matters such as the sale of the home. The defendant Ms. Wang, as the buyer, had been informed by the agency staff that the home involved the plaintiff's interests, yet she still signed the home sale contract with Ms. Song without examining whether the plaintiff agreed to sell the home. Therefore, she did not meet the conditions for a bona fide third-party purchase. The court accordingly ruled that the Beijing Existing Home Sale Contract signed by the defendant Ms. Song and the defendant Ms. Wang was invalid.