Inside Tengda Law Firm, Tang Fangjing was sitting beside Old Song's desk, idly playing with his phone, bored out of his mind.
As for Old Song? Old Song went with Old Tang's former colleague to gather evidence from the company...
Old Tang expressed that there was nothing that could be done about this; you see, the companies aren't fools, if everyone did this, how could they continue to operate?
So, if they wanted to turn all those past incidents into evidence, they'd have to be crafty.
As for why Old Song had to go himself… joking aside, they had put so much effort into networking, not going would be a huge loss!
Tang Fangjing actually wanted to go too, but he was worried that his presence at the company would drive General Manager Hu mad, so he had no choice, really no choice, he actually wanted to work.
Just as he was idly killing time, his phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Secretary Tian.
Odd, what could the community secretary possibly want by calling him out of the blue?
"Hello, Secretary Tian, hey, I'm just near our community. Yeah, I joined Tengda a few days ago, what? You want me to give everyone some consulting? Ok, ok, no problem."
Although lawyers generally disliked the "just asking" type, that also depended on who it was.
Secretary Tian had been a great help to him before, from recommending him as an agent to helping him buy a house, very thoughtful.
Since he was idle anyway, Tang Fangjing put away his phone, greeted Xiao Li who had just returned with a pile of parcels, and headed straight for the property management office.
Speaking of which, he'd been to the property management office once before, when the previous homeowner, Auntie Liu, took him there to handle some matters. He quickly found the meeting room upon entering.
Pushing the door open, he found quite a few people inside, some of them "familiar faces."
"Hey, Mr. Qian, what a coincidence, and Auntie Wang too, everyone's here, sit, sit, no worries."
At the head, Secretary Tian looked somewhat bewildered at Tang Fangjing, who had walked in and made himself at home—if she remembered correctly, he'd only moved in yesterday, hadn't he?
Although General Manager Hou had left, this was still the property management's meeting room, so there was a property management worker sitting in the corner, a young girl named Kong Xiufang, who was curiously observing the newly arrived Tang Fangjing.
She was left behind to eavesdrop, and thus she was curious about Secretary Tian's mentioned expert and wanted to know how he planned to handle things.
Zhao Ruixia looked at Tang Fangjing skeptically; no matter how you looked at him, his outfit and demeanor didn't seem like those of a professional, but since it was Secretary Tian who had called him, she kept her peace.
Tang Fangjing had already taken his seat and addressed the crowd, "My name is Tang Fangjing, and I'm currently with the Tengda Law Firm near our community."
"Secretary Tian has already briefed me on the situation. It's about you all not paying the property management fees or parking space management fees, and then being sued by the property management company, right?"
He even glanced at Mr. Qian, who looked up at the sky as if to say, what are you looking at me for, I don't know you...
Zhao Ruixia couldn't help but interject, "No, that's not right, Lawyer Tang... That's what you are, right? This clearly started with them not providing proper services. Everything has to be reasonable…"
However, before she could finish, Tang Fangjing cut her off, "Ms. Zhao, right? I saw you at the gate yesterday. Please, hold off on speaking for now, and the same goes for the rest of you."
"First, let me clarify one thing clearly to all of you. You're almost certainly going to lose this lawsuit. Don't rush to object, just listen to me explain."
In both my past life and this world, there were numerous dispute cases regarding property management fees, and let me put it this way, residents who were sued by property management for unpaid fees generally lost.
The reason is simple. The 'reasonable' in legal terms is different from the 'reasonable' in everyday terms.
In reality, you can argue 'I won't pay you because the services you provided weren't satisfactory,' but legally that doesn't hold.
If their services are unsatisfactory, you can report, file complaints, or take legal action, but that doesn't give you the right to withhold payment because they did provide services after all.
To win, you'd need to prove that your community's property management didn't provide any of the services stipulated in the contract, but everyone knows that's impossible to prove.
Therefore, some courts rule directly that the homeowners must pay the property management fee and a penalty for breach of contract, while others decide that homeowners can pay ten to twenty percent less, depending on the service situation…
"Now everyone knows, right? If the property management sues you, they're basically guaranteed to win."
Zhao Ruixia didn't speak; she was actually the youngest among them and also knew the most.
She could tell that the young man opposite her was a professional, and what he said made a lot of sense.
The others were also pondering Tang Fangjing's words, and Secretary Tian found herself increasingly satisfied the more she observed. She originally planned to properly introduce Tang Fangjing to these homeowners, but it turned out he didn't need it at all.
Professionals rely not on seniority, but on expertise!
Old Mr. Qian spoke up, "Then, Little Tang, what do you suggest we do now?"
"Right, the property management is bullying us too much. You weren't here just now when that Hou general manager spoke—his words made us want to punch someone. What's this? Blaming us for not paying the property fees when the service is so poor?"
A neighboring auntie chimed in.
"He also said that we could take legal action and even form something like a homeowners' committee…"
The crowd started to babble again, and Secretary Tian couldn't stand it and interjected, "Everyone's speaking over each other; Little Tang can't understand you clearly."
Right after she spoke, she realized that Tang Fangjing across from her seemed to be stunned.
"Little Tang? Little Tang?"
Tang Fangjing quickly shifted his gaze away from the mission panel and hurriedly said, "Oh, ah, I heard that. Well, I have three options here; let's see which path we want to take."
Unexpectedly, he had activated a mission, which was not quite what he had imagined. Originally, he thought only personal experience would count. But now, thinking about it, the system is called the Risk-It-All Lawyer System; how could a lawyer experience everything, right?
Looking at the mission, it seemed simple just from the description.
Mission Objective: Use legal means to 'educate' the property management company.
And the reward for achieving 200% completion was another year!
Although he now had a year's worth of life expectancy, who would complain about living too long, right?
Moreover, Tang Fangjing had a thought bubbling up in his mind: what if... what if he could exceed 200% completion?
In his previous life, there was an explosive case involving property management!
"Three options?"
"Yes, three options. The first one is to file a complaint with the property management department and then sue them in court for compensation. The second option is for us all to confront the property management... of course, that's just a joke."
"As for the third one, that's about forming the entire homeowners' committee..."
Tang Fangjing didn't finish his sentence. Forming a homeowners' committee and then kicking out the property management might reach a 200% completion.
But that wouldn't be enough to break through 200% completion.
In his previous life in Magic City, after forming a homeowners' committee, they audited the property management's financial records of the past twenty years and found that the property management owed the community 40 million in compensation—and they won the lawsuit!
What about in this life? Just thinking about it was interesting...
Although property management claims to be a service, you have to know that they are a company, and what is the purpose of a company? A company aims to make a profit...
Just using your rear end to think, you could guess what these property companies left by developers would do. Would they hand over the money that should belong to all the homeowners?
For the sake of my life, I'll kindly ask the property management to make a minor sacrifice..."