What's wrong with this lawyer?!

Chapter 40: Chapter 38: Madmen, all of them!

"Old Tang, I think you should consider going to the hospital to have a look, your mental state seems a bit off..."

After everyone started to get busy, Old Liu hesitated but still spoke up.

Tang Fangjing nodded and said, "Okay, once this is over, I'll go to the hospital to have a checkup."

His mental state was definitely not normal; anyone would be affected if they faced death every day, not to mention the torment of illness.

But the task at hand was more pressing, even though plans often went awry.

Initially, the plan was merely to reclaim all the profits, but after several months of investigation, more and more doubts had arisen. By now, even a fool could see there was something fishy going on...

Well then, it was a good opportunity to test out what would happen if company bosses who needed to be 'educated' were sent in. What kind of concept would that be?

If it proved feasible, then the game would change. Maybe even the one who hammers out decisions above could be tried...

...

At the Economic Investigation Division of the Guangming Sub-bureau, having just been busy for half the day, Old Fang was hammering his waist, getting ready to take a break.

Before he could rest, he looked up and saw a young man walking in with a huge briefcase.

"Hey, Comrade, what's the matter?" Old Fang quickly went up to intercept him and asked.

It was not that he was overly sensitive, it's just that in their line of work, one had to be extra cautious. It was almost impossible, but it was the unexpected that one feared.

The visitor was Tang Fangjing, who smiled at Old Fang and said, "Hello, Comrade, I'm here to report a crime."

"Report a crime?" Old Fang's brows furrowed. "This is the Economic Investigation Division; we handle economic crimes..."

Economic crimes differ from other types of crimes, in that they are highly specialized, difficult to discern, etc. In daily life, many people don't even realize that they are crimes.

Therefore, most of the time they accept reports from organizations, and personal reports are seldom taken seriously.

Upon hearing this, Tang Fangjing said, "My case is an economic crime. I'm representing the Yuefu Residential Complex's property owners' committee, and these are our documents."

Old Fang curiously took them and looked. Indeed, the property owners' committee had specifically entrusted him to file the report.

"This here is the evidence..."

Old Fang was already feeling dizzy as he took the briefcase. Who brings so much material to a police station to file a report?

Truthfully, to file a case, not so much was needed, but Tang Fangjing knew that the standards for the police to accept a case could sometimes be hard to meet, so he had spent several months gathering all the evidence he could.

"Look, these are the evidences from 2,274 households in our complex regarding the collection of parking fees... all of this and here we have the standard fees for elevator advertising..."

Old Fang felt like he was going blind, and his ears seemed to have a problem too.

"Hold on, hold on, young man, did you go and ask these two thousand plus households one by one?" Old Fang asked in amazement, looking at the evidence before him.

"Of course not, as some people don't live in the complex, but for those residents who do, I've asked them all and have evidence right here..."

"There was no way around it, our complex's property management wouldn't hand over any of the communal income ledgers to the committee, so we had to use this method to gather an approximate total..."

"And here, this is from the year before last. With the efforts of the street office, our property management company disclosed the income and expenditure for once in over ten years, and you see, the public income of the entire complex didn't even compare to the parking fee alone, can you believe that?"

The public income isn't just limited to parking fees; not to mention the elevator advertising revenue, which was in the tens of thousands, the property management's rooms that came with the complex, as well as communal rooms in this very building, part of which had been rented out directly.

This too was something Tang Fangjing learned from making inquiries, and in fact, many of the residents were not even aware that the property management's rooms were also co-owned by the homeowners.

Why? Because the shared area included in your purchase of the house is already accounted for, as clearly stipulated by the Civil Code.

So, a lot of area has been stolen from within...

Of course, some places have issued new regulations this year, stating that property management facilities should be constructed by the developer at no cost and not included in the shared area, but still belong to the homeowners collectively.

"As a result, in such circumstances, look here, last year the property management used the maintenance fund to replace two elevators, claiming that the maintenance fund was almost depleted and that homeowners might need to contribute more in the future..."

After deducting reasonable costs from the public income, if there is no general meeting of homeowners, it generally goes to the maintenance fund.

But no matter how you look at it, it's impossible that so much was spent, not to mention that many places in Yuefu Residential Complex haven't been repaired at all, just left to deteriorate...

Old Tang was flipping through the documents, his frown deepening, but his eyes growing brighter!

Why? Because the work of the residents' committee was exceptionally well done!

The evidence was organized neatly into categories; looking through it, one could spot one dubious point after another, and these points could yield results upon further investigation.

Finally, he spoke, "Wait a moment, youngster, is your residential complex's committee so responsible?"

"No, how should I put it, I took the lead in setting up the committee aiming to recover the public income. Right, I'm a lawyer myself and I wanted to earn that money."

"So, what happened? The property management kept evading responsibility, they wouldn't give us anything, the committee couldn't afford to hire me, so I had no choice but to do it this way."

The logic was sound: I wanted to earn the lawyer's fee from the committee, but the committee had no money because the property management wasn't cooperating, so the only solution was to find a way to force their cooperation.

Old Tang swallowed hard, feeling that this young man might have some issues. The effort and time he had put in, and all the various costs involved, had long outweighed the lawyer's fees...

Especially since he had specifically initiated a private criminal action just to restore his own reputation...

"Cough cough, we have received the materials, whether we will file the case or not, just wait for the notice."

Tang Fangjing nodded, saying, "Right, comrade, please hurry up. The property management isn't taking care of the garbage disposal now. I've been paying out of pocket to handle the trash in the complex, and I can't afford it much longer."

As Old Tang was struggling to take out the documents from his bag, he stumbled, thinking this wasn't just a minor issue—this person definitely needed to see a doctor, absolutely!

After saying goodbye to the Economic Investigation Squad in a friendly manner, Old Tang hesitated but decided to visit the psychiatric department, and it would be even better if he could get a certificate.

What's the big deal? It's not like there's a law saying a person with mental illness can't be a lawyer...

......

A few days flew by, and just as General Manager Hou returned from tasting the new tea, he froze in his tracks in the property management office.

"What? You're saying they're actually planning to audit the accounts? Where does the residents' committee get the money? Did Tang Fangjing come up with the method himself? Even the trash disposal is paid by him? Dammit, is he insane?

What on earth did I ever do to him!"

General Manager Hou felt like coughing up blood now. Originally, his plan involved causing infighting among the homeowners through the trash disposal issue, then negotiating with Old Liu and the committee so that everyone would keep to their own affairs.

Property management fees could be reduced a little; after all, as long as the committee showed some accomplishments, that would suffice.

This was the approach of many residential complexes once they had a residents' committee. Though called a committee, it was really just a means for personal gain. Of course, this also led to some committee heads getting incarcerated...

He never anticipated they would actually go through with auditing. If the audit really started, the amount he might have to repay was unfathomable.

This can't go on, thought General Manager Hou after much hesitation. Dismissal it is, then. After all, he had earned plenty over the years.

"Old Liu, let them know. We'll meet in the conference room tomorrow, a meeting between property management and the residents' committee to discuss the return of public income. If you want to dismiss me, then do it. I'll fully cooperate..."