Building Vanished at 32 Floors Only! The Shocking 34th Floor Flat Buy Scam
Imagine saving for years to buy a beautiful 34th Floor Flat or apartment, only to discover on moving day that the building completely stops at floor 32. It sounds like a bad joke, but this strange real estate nightmare left one buyer stranded. How do multiple floors just vanish from a blueprint? Read the full story to uncover this mind-boggling property scandal.
Disclaimer
The Missing Floors
Everyone dreams of buying a house. It is often the biggest investment a regular person makes in their entire life. We spend years saving every single rupee, cutting down on our daily expenses just to have a roof over our heads.
This is the true story of a regular working-class man named Shen, who lived in an area near Xi’an in China. A few years ago, Shen thought he had finally achieved his lifelong dream. He booked a beautiful 90-square-meter apartment in a brand-new residential tower. He chose a way up 34th floor flat because he wanted a good view, fresh air, and a quiet space for his family.
But when the construction was finally over and he went to see his new home, what he saw shocked him completely. The entire building stopped at the 32nd floor. The 34th floor simply did not exist in the real world.
This is a true story of how an innocent homebuyer was tricked into buying a flat built out of thin air. It serves as a cautionary tale for anyone looking to buy a house anywhere in the world.
The Trap of Cheap Prices
To understand how this happened, we have to look at how the deal started. Like many people, Shen was looking for a good home that fit his tight budget.
A Deal That Sounded Perfect
Shen met a local builder who was advertising a massive new housing project. The builder showed him beautiful papers, colourful brochures, and master plans. Everything looked perfectly official on paper. The sales team spoke very politely and promised that the keys to the flat would be given within two years.
The Charm of High-Rise Living
Living in a tall tower is very popular nowadays. The builder offered Shen a flat on the 34th floor, and he was thrilled. He imagined looking out of his window and seeing the city lights. He thought a higher floor would keep his family away from the dust and loud noise of the traffic below.
The Low-Price Trick
The biggest reason Shen agreed to buy was the price. The builder was selling the flats at almost one-third of the regular market rate in the nearby areas. For a middle-class man, this felt like a golden opportunity that he could not afford to miss.
He immediately paid a huge advance amount from his hard-earned savings to lock the flat and signed the agreement. He thought he had made the best decision for his family’s future. He had no idea that the cheap price was actually a trap.
The Day the Dream Shattered
When you buy a flat before it is physically built, you are paying for a promise. You trust that the builder will follow the rules and build exactly what they showed you on paper. In this case, that trust was broken completely.
Years of Waiting and Fake Promises
The builder promised to hand over the flat in two years. But those two years passed, and the building was nowhere near ready. Every time Shen asked for an update, the builders made a new excuse. They blamed bad weather, labor shortages, and rising material costs.
Four long years passed. Shen spent countless nights worrying about his money, hoping that the construction would finish soon.
34th Floor Flat Vanished: The Shocking Discovery
Finally, the building looked ready from the outside. Shen excitedly went to the construction site to see his new flat. He stood outside and counted the floors one by one. He counted them again, thinking he had made a mistake.
There were only 32 floors. The building literally ended at the 32nd roof.
He ran to the site office and asked where his 34th floor flat was. The staff had no proper answer. The builder had sold him a home in the sky that was never actually planned to be built.
A Ridiculous Alternative Offer
When the builders realized they were caught, they tried to give him a shortcut solution. They told him he could take a flat on the actual top floor, which was the 32nd floor, instead.
But there was a big problem. Since the 32nd floor was now the top floor, the builder demanded a lot of extra money for it. Shen did not have any more money left. Because he could not pay the extra amount immediately, the builder went ahead and sold that 32nd-floor flat to someone else. The poor man was left with absolutely nothing.
The Danger of Unapproved Projects
How can a builder sell floors that do not exist? This happens when projects are built without proper government approvals. This problem is common in many developing regions where grey-market housing exists.
What is Grey-Market Housing?
In many places, builders construct massive apartments on agricultural land or village land without taking permission from the main city authorities. They bypass the law to save money on government fees and taxes.
Projects built this way do not get official government approvals, banks do not give loans for these properties, and regular property laws do not protect the buyers. Because there is no government officer checking the site, the builders change the maps whenever they want. They can promise a 40-storey building to buyers but stop building at 30 storeys if they run out of funds.
Why Do People Still Buy Them?
People buy these flats because regular housing is too expensive. Buyers often think that as long as the building is constructed and they get their key, the paperwork does not matter. They believe that because hundreds of other families are also buying there, the government will not cause any trouble. This line of thinking leaves innocent buyers open to massive fraud.
The Endless Fight for a Refund
With no flat to live in and his life savings gone, Shen had to start a long, painful legal fight to get his money back.
Winning on Paper, Losing in Reality
Shen went to a local consumer court. He showed his contract, his payment receipts, and pictures of the 32-storey building. The case was clear. The judge quickly ruled in his favor and ordered the builder to return the full advance money along with interest and a fine.
The Final Trick: Empty Bank Accounts
Winning a court case means nothing if the builder refuses to pay. When the government officers went to collect the money from the builder, they found out that the company’s official bank accounts were completely empty.
The builder had secretly moved all the money to other small dummy companies or personal accounts. Today, more than ten years after paying his money, Shen is still fighting. He has a legal paper saying he won, but he does not have his money or his home.
How to Protect Yourself When Buying a Flat
This story teaches us that we must be very careful when buying a property. Here are a few simple but essential rules every homebuyer should follow to stay safe from such fraud:
Check Government Approval: Always verify if the project is registered with your local government housing authority.
Look at the Master Plan: Never buy a flat just by looking at a builder’s brochure. Ask for the plan approved by the city corporation.
Avoid Cash Deals: Make every single payment through bank channels like cheques or online transfers so you have solid proof.
Say No to Unapproved Land: If a property is built on agricultural or unapproved village land, do not buy it, no matter how cheap it is.
Ask for Bank Loan Approvals: If major national banks refuse to give a home loan for a specific project, it means the project papers are faulty. Walk away immediately.
Conclusion
A 34th floor flat in a 32-storey building sounds like an impossible story, but it happened to a real person who lost everything. Cheap prices and sweet words from builders can often blind us to the risks. When you buy a house, always double-check the reality on the ground. Make sure your dream home is built on a solid legal foundation, not just on a piece of paper.
34th Floor Flat Story - References
- South China Morning Post – Chinese homeowner buys 34th-floor…
- AirNews – Shen Buys 34th Floor Flat in 32-Storey Chinese Building
- NDTV – Chinese Man Buys Rs 33 Lakh Flat On 34th Floor…
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