Is it legal to collect liquidated damages for property?

I. Agreement on the Property Service Contract

In the property service contract, the property and the owner will agree on various service items, which may also include penalty clauses. If the standards, conditions and methods of collecting liquidated damages are clearly stipulated in the contract, and these terms are legal and effective, then the property has the right to collect liquidated damages in case of default by the owner.

However, it should be noted that the penalty clause in the property service contract should be reasonable and legal, and there should be no situation that is too high, unreasonable or damages the legitimate rights and interests of the owners. If the penalty clause violates the provisions of laws and regulations or obviously unfair, then the clause may be invalid.

Second, the provisions of relevant laws and regulations.

In China, the laws and regulations on property service charges and liquidated damages mainly include the Property Management Regulations and the Contract Law. These laws and regulations regulate the collection of property service fees and liquidated damages, requiring the property to abide by the provisions of relevant laws and regulations when collecting fees, and not to arbitrarily increase charging items or raise charging standards.

At the same time, laws and regulations also protect the legitimate rights and interests of owners, and owners have the right to complain and defend their rights for acts such as arbitrary charges and arbitrary collection of liquidated damages.

To sum up:

Whether it is legal to collect liquidated damages for property needs to be judged according to the stipulations in the property service contract and the provisions of relevant laws and regulations. If the contract clearly stipulates the legal and effective terms of liquidated damages, and the property abides by the relevant laws and regulations when collecting liquidated damages, then it is legal for the property to collect liquidated damages. However, if there is something wrong with the terms of liquidated damages, or the property violates the provisions of laws and regulations when collecting liquidated damages, then the owners can defend their rights through legal channels.

Legal basis:

property management regulations

Article 45 provides that:

Property service enterprises shall abide by the laws, regulations and rules of the state on prices, strictly implement the methods and standards for charging property services formulated by the competent price department, strengthen price self-discipline, and accept the supervision of the owners and the competent price department.

law of contract

Article 1 14 stipulates:

The parties may agree that when one party breaches the contract, it shall pay a certain amount of liquidated damages to the other party according to the situation of breach of contract, and may also agree on the calculation method of the amount of compensation for breach of contract. If the agreed liquidated damages are lower than the losses caused, the parties may request the people's court or arbitration institution to increase them; If the agreed liquidated damages are excessively higher than the losses caused, the parties may request the people's court or arbitration institution to reduce them appropriately. If the parties concerned pay liquidated damages for delayed performance, the breaching party shall also perform the debt after paying the liquidated damages.