developer furnished me with a fake copy of my Contract to Sell. what can i charge against developer?

attyLLL wrote:once a contract is perfected, it can only be amended with the consent of the parties.

i signed a "Contract to Sell" with a developer in Feb. 2007. i was never given a copy of the contract as they said they will give it to me after its notarized and makes the rounds at their headquarters, etc.

after one year i asked the VP of Marketing, and one of the signers of my Contract, for a copy of my contract. and i asked with developers office from time to time of almost 3 years in total.

finally, after almost 4 years, they gave me a copy.

Problems:
first i notice that its not signed by anyone, neither i nor the develper's authorized reps.

then i noticed that a key detail figure, the allowable sqm variance of the unit floor area, is not the same as my friends contracts who signed around the same time i did in early 2007. both contracts that were signed a few months before and after my contract, have the same key detail figure of 8 sqm variance for my condo unit classification.

but, the 'copy' the developer gave to me states 10 sqm variance allowed for my condo unit. This is most likely the contract they are using now and in 2010 but not back in 2007.

my apartment turns out to be 9.9sqm short of the sqm's the developer claimed was the sqm of my unit is. under the terms of the older contract, i'm entitled to refund of 9.9sqm since its over 8. but under the newer contract terms, i wouldn't be entitled to any refund since 9.9 is less than the 10sqm allowable variance.

so i asked the developer to find and give me MY actuall signed contract copy.

their response was that they LOST IT.

question: what charges can i accuse them of doing?

other than the obvious bad faith business practice and cheating, what
specific laws under civil code or contract law etc.


2 question, is not a 'variance clause' in contract signed "post construction" just a way for the develper to add on a few sqm to every unit and cheat people?

if the unit is just under the variance, no adjustment (refund) is made. they state the unit is X with a variance of Y. they charge you for X sqm, yet they really know that the actual is almost a full Y less. ie (X- (Y-.1) so they never have to refund Y sqm.. but add 10 or 15% to their profits..

i can see the need for a variance clause for contracts signed PRE-Construction, when changes could occur to the size of units, but not for a unit/project that is already finished.


Question 3, not only are this devoloper's clients being cheated this way, but down at the city tax assessor office, the tax declarations have the 'inflated' sqm unit sizes, not the actual sizes..

is this another violation of any laws or codes, local gov't code? regarding sworn statements, etc?


thanks in advance. and yes, i'm still preparing my case to go HLURB for a whole list of this developer's other bad business practices..

did you sign the new contract?

the short answer is NO. i did not sign it.

I agree with you that your remedy is to file a complaint at the HLURB.