Pursuant to Clause 3, Article 292 of the 2015 Civil Code, depositing is one of the measures to ensure the performance of obligations between the parties.
In addition, Clause 1, Article 328 of the 2015 Civil Code stipulates the deposit as follows:
A deposit is the act of one party (hereinafter referred to as the depositor) handing over to the other party (hereinafter referred to as the deposit recipient) an amount of money or other precious metals, gemstones or valuable objects (hereinafter referred to as the deposit property) for a period of time to ensure the signing or performance of the contract.
At the same time, Clause 2, Article 328 of the 2015 Civil Code also stipulates that in case the depositor does not sign the contract after the agreed term, the amount used for the deposit will belong to the deposit recipient.
Therefore, if both parties have made a deposit contract to buy land but the depositor no longer wants to buy, the depositor will lose the deposit to the deposit recipient, except in cases where both parties have agreed that the depositor will not lose money if the sale contract is not implemented after the deposit expires.
Regarding compensation for damages, according to Article 584 of the 2015 Civil Code, the following cases need to be considered:
(1) In case of actual damage: If the seller is damaged (such as losing costs, income or suffering losses due to the buyer abandoning the deposit), the buyer must compensate for the damage and lose the deposit, unless the two parties have another agreement.
(2) In case there is no damage: If the deposit cancellation does not cause actual damage to the seller, the buyer will only lose the deposit, without having to pay additional compensation.
(3) In case of separate agreement: The two parties shall comply with the agreed content in the deposit contract.
- If there is a compensation regulation: the buyer must both lose the deposit and compensate.
- If compensation is not regulated: the buyer only loses the deposit.
Thus, land buyers who arbitrarily abandon their deposit usually only lose the deposit, and do not have to pay additional compensation, unless there is an agreement in the contract on compensation or actual damage to the seller.
