If I am not satisfied with the decoration design, can I refund the "deposit" I paid?

Bought a new house,

Renovation became a top priority.

After the owner signs the contract with the renovation company,

If you are not satisfied with the decoration design,

I want to cancel the contract,

Can I get a refund of the "deposit" I paid in the previous period?

(Image source network invasion and deletion)

Basic facts of the case

Xiao Wei and Xiao Lian bought a rough commercial house located in a community in Shanglin County. On December 19, 2021, Xiaolian and a decoration company entered into a "Family Room Decoration Project Construction Contract" for the decoration of the aforementioned house, Xiaolian as Party A and a decoration company as Party B.

Contractually agreed

Contracting method

Party B (a decoration company) contracts the aforesaid house decoration project purchased by Party A (Xiaolian) in the form of contracting labor and part of the materials;

The price of the project

The project cost is 160,000 yuan (including the price of materials provided by Party A);

Decoration materials

For details of the category, quantity and price of the materials and equipment provided by Party A, please refer to the annex to the contract "List of Engineering Materials and Equipment Supplied by Party A" and the "Guangxi Decoration "6.0" German European Standard Series Decoration Budget (hereinafter referred to as the "Budget List");

Changes to the contract

If Party A proposes to modify or increase the project of the design plan, it shall notify the designer of Party B in advance and notify the foreman in writing, and the designer of Party B shall submit the engineering change order indicating the process practice and quotation before the construction is signed and approved by Party A, and the project cost shall be subject to the project budget signed by Party A.

Payment for the project

Article 11 of the contract stipulates that 55% (88,000 yuan) of the project price shall be paid three days before the start of construction...... Article 16 of the other agreed matters agreed on the date of signing the contract, Party A to pay 25% of the project price to Party B, Party B for Party A to reserve such activities and preferential content, until Party A makes up 55% of the project payment, Party B can enter the site for construction;

devise

If Party A entrusts Party B to design, Party B shall provide construction drawings in triplicate, Party A shall hold one copy and Party B shall hold two copies, and both parties shall sign for confirmation of receipt of the construction drawings;

Liability for breach of contract

If the contract cannot be continued due to Party A's reasons, Party B shall be compensated for 20% of the total project cost (the price of materials provided by Party A is not included) 20% of the liquidated damages.

Xiao Wei paid 24,000 yuan to a decoration company on the same day (December 19, 2021), and the finance of a decoration company issued a receipt to Xiao Wei, which stated that "Xiao Wei handed over a decoration deposit (scan code) of 20,000 yuan from a community in Shanglin County...... Xiao Wei signed the receipt.

After the contract was signed, a decoration company came to provide the two of them with services such as measuring the room, water and electricity positioning, whole house design and renderings. Later, because Xiaowei Xiaolian was not satisfied with the design plan, the final plan had not yet been selected.

In the continuous communication between the two parties, the two parties had a dispute over the additional items in the contract, and a decoration company needed to re-determine the contract price and sign a new contract before it could start construction, and the two parties had a disagreement on whether the bed presented in the "budget list" included a mattress. In the process of negotiating and changing the contract, the two parties finally failed to reach an agreement, and the designer of a decoration company told the plaintiff on WeChat, "Then you can find him to do it and change the designer".

After Xiao Wei told a decoration company that he had paid 24,000 yuan to buy ceramic tiles from a decoration company, a decoration company did not agree, and the two parties broke up unhappily, and the two plaintiffs sued the court, proposing to terminate the "Family Room Decoration Project Construction Contract" and require a decoration company to return the second plaintiff's decoration advance payment of 23,500 yuan.

It was also ascertained that on December 19, 2021, on the day of signing the "Family Room Decoration Project Construction Contract", Huang, an employee of a decoration company, transferred 1,115 yuan to Xiao Wei through WeChat.

After a decoration company responded to the lawsuit, it filed a counterclaim, demanding that Xiaowei and Xiaolian return 1,115 yuan.

Court decision

In accordance with Articles 510, 565, 566, 770, 787 and 1060 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, and Article 90 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the court made the following judgments:

1. It is confirmed that the "Family Room Decoration Project Construction Contract" signed by the plaintiff (counterclaim defendant) Xiaolian and the defendant (counterclaim plaintiff) Guangxi Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd. was terminated on November 10, 2022;

2. The defendant (counterclaim plaintiff) Guangxi Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd. returned 14,000 yuan to the plaintiff (counterclaim defendant) Xiaowei and Xiaolian;

3. Reject the other claims of the plaintiff (counterclaim defendant) Xiao Wei and Xiao Lian;

4. All counterclaims of the defendant (counterclaim plaintiff) Guangxi Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd. are rejected.

What the judge said

Although Xiaolian and a decoration company signed the "Family Room Decoration Project Construction Contract", this case was the purchase of commercial housing by Xiaowei and Xiaolian to entrust the decoration company to carry out home decoration, and from the content of the contract, the decoration company completed the work in the form of contracting labor and materials in accordance with the requirements of the customizer, delivered the work results, and then paid the remuneration by the customizer, so the legal relationship between the two parties should be a contract. The "Family Room Decoration Project Construction Contract" is the true expression of the intention of both parties, and the content does not violate the mandatory provisions of laws and administrative regulations, and is a legal and valid contract, and both parties should abide by it.

On the issue of whether the "Construction Contract for the Construction of Family Room Decoration and Decoration Project" should be terminated. After the contract was signed, Xiao Wei paid part of the price according to the agreement, and the decoration company also measured the house, positioned the water and electricity and drew the design plan renderings, because Xiao Wei and Xiao Lian were not satisfied with the design plan, decoration materials, etc., and there were differences in the understanding of the donated furniture and the plaintiff, the two parties negotiated on WeChat for the change of contract repricing, but also failed to reach an agreement, and the contract price was not determined, resulting in the house being unable to start decoration, the contract could not be performed, and the purpose of the contract between the two parties could not be realized. According to Article 787 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the contractor can terminate the contract at any time before the contractor completes the work, so there is no need to continue the performance of the contract involved in the case. Therefore, the court confirmed that the "Family Room Decoration and Decoration Project Construction Contract" signed by Xiaolian and the decoration company was terminated on November 10, 2022 on the date of service of the complaint containing the content of the termination of the contract (the facts and reasons of the complaint and some of the plaintiffs expressly requested to terminate the contract).

On the issue of how to determine the nature of the 24,000 yuan paid by Xiao Wei. The determination of the nature of the 24,000 yuan that has been delivered should be comprehensively analyzed and judged in combination with the contract in the case and the agreement of the parties, and cannot be mechanically determined solely on the basis of the superficial state presented in the form of the receipt. In this case, Xiao Wei paid 24,000 yuan to a decoration company, and the date of payment coincided with the date of payment of the advance payment for decoration as agreed in the contract, so it can be seen that the payment of 24,000 yuan should be based on the agreement on the advance payment for decoration in the decoration contract entered into by the two parties, and was agreed by both parties. In the receipt issued by the decoration company to Xie after collecting 24,000 yuan, it was stated on the receipt that it was a deposit, and Xiao Wei also signed the receipt.

First of all, the act of "deposit" stated on the receipt was only a unilateral act of the decoration company after receiving the payment, and based on the evidence of the whole case, there was no contractual agreement on the deposit, nor was there any agreement between the parties, and Xiao Wei and Xiao Lian did not retroactively recognize this unilateral act of the decoration company afterwards;

Secondly, Xiao Wei did not recognize that the money was a deposit, but still signed on the receipt, because the carrier with the deposit was a receipt, and the nature of the signature was not a recognition of the nature of the deposit, but a confirmation of the amount of 24,000 yuan charged by the decoration company, which was only a unilateral act of the decoration company beyond the scope of Xiao Wei's confirmation.

Third, the text format and receipt format of the decoration contract involved in the case were provided by the decoration company, and the content of the receipt was also written by the decoration company, and the decoration company was a party providing the standard contract and had a relatively strong position, while Xiao Wei and Xiaolian, as the providers of the non-standard contract, had a weaker position, even though the decoration company unilaterally stated the "deposit" on the receipt However, as a party with a weaker position, there is no reason for Xiao Wei not to accept the receipt as proof that he has paid 24,000 yuan, even if the receipt is attached to the content that is unfavorable to him;

Fourth, the decoration company unilaterally changed the nature of the payment to a deposit, which was unfavorable to Xie, and the payment could only be recognized as a deposit after Xie made a clear expression of intent, and it was not enough to determine that Xie had the intention based on Xie's signature on the receipt. Considering the above four reasons, the court finally determined that the nature of the payment was a decoration advance payment, not a deposit, and combined with the degree of performance of the contract, after deducting part of the amount, the decoration company was ordered to return 14,000 yuan to Xiaowei and Xiaolian.

On the issue of whether 1,115 yuan should be returned to the decoration company. The fee was transferred to Xiao Wei by an employee of the decoration company, Huang, and there was no evidence to prove that it was an advance payment for the project, and the decoration company had no evidence to prove that the 1,115 yuan had been paid to Huang afterwards, that is, the decoration company had no evidence to prove that the 1,115 yuan had been actually paid by itself, and the counterclaim had no factual and legal basis, and the court did not support it.