Earthquake And Individual Housing Mortgage Loans Related Legal Issues

While a lot of houses were destroyed in Wenchuan earthquake, how to deal with the mortgage loans became a hot issue. It concerned many house buyers and analyzing it is of great significance.The definition of mortgage cannot be found in Chinese laws and it is controversial in the academic world. Mortgage loans involve the legal relationship of house transaction, loans, guarantee, insurance, etc By law, after the delivery of the house, buyers suffer the consequence of earthquake damage and have to continue to repay the loans. But buyers who survived from the earthquake have lost the ability to repay the loans. Force majeure and Clausula rebus sic stantibus give no exemption of the duty. The debts cancel after verification just gives more time for the buyers to recover and the debt remains. There is no solution under the current law framework. How do foreign nations deal with this problem? Japan, US and Taiwan show us some ways. They all have insurance system covering earthquake and personal bankruptcy system, which will help to the solution. We can learn from them and make such laws.This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one gives us an introduction of mortgage and the growth of mortgage in China and makes an analysis of the legal relationships in mortgage.It also points out the fact that buyers suffer from the damage of the house and have to repay the mortgage loans. Chapter two makes an analysis of the application of Force majeure and change of circumstances in that matter. Chapter three gives an introduction of the measures foreign nations take to solve the difficult problem. Chapter four makes some suggestions to lawmakers.