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Clarify land laws first

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-31 07:43

Law-makers shouldn't use obscure terms to strip people of house-owning rights, says an article in Chongqing Times. Following is an excerpt:

As for the upcoming revision of the Land Management Law, people are most concerned about whether they will still own their houses without paying extra money after their 70-year land use right expires.

According to reports, the latest revision of the law may rule that the citizen's rights to own houses will be renewed 70 years after the purchase not "freely and automatically" but "according to related regulations". It means, as experts said, people will probably have to pay to renew their house rights.

Therefore, people are now facing the risk of being driven out of their houses just because of the shortage of money when their house use rights expire in the future.

Previously, the Property Law ruled that "the use right of houses will be renewed automatically", but it is too general and lacks details about how to renew.

What the later laws should do is plug the holes and correct mistakes in previous laws.

The value of revising the Land Management Law is to clarify the blurry areas in current land management practices. Obscure terms are very likely to deprive people of the rights they should have owned.

(China Daily 03/31/2009 page6)