HUANG Shuliang, of the Shanghai Academy of Social Science has some doubts about the effectiveness of the newly organized group of 152 volunteer lawyers providing legal advice to residents who are having problems over their forced relocation.

The local media has done a lot of reporting on the lawyers, saying that they may help to rationalize the behaviour of real estate developers and relocation companies and to standardize the relocation system and its associated policies.

All the 152 lawyers names and telephone numbers have been published in newspapers.

The lawyers came together to ease the tension between relocated residents and property developers and the government after two self-immolation tragedies involving residents from other provinces who were unhappy with their relocations, according to Cheng Peixin, a lawyer in the group from Shanghai Shenda Law Firm.

Help for the poor

Residents may call on the 152 lawyers for help about questions of law. However, "volunteer" doesn't mean free assistance - the lawyers are those who are willing to look into cases related to relocation disputes.

"I may answer their questions, as many as possible, by phone or in person if I have time," Cheng said. "But as their counsel, we would charge them as usual except for those who are really very poor."

All the 5,000 lawyers in the city have a duty to accept relocation cases and offer legal services for residents, Huang said.

However, until now only a few lawyers were willing to take on relocation cases because most of them resulted in losses when they went to court.

They believed it would be hard to win the cases because the developers and relocation companies might have government backing. "Nobody wants to challenge the authorities," Cheng said.

Due to the lack of legal knowledge and assistance from lawyers, relocated residents disputing their enforced rehousing have had to try to fend for themselves.

Zhu Lingfeng, a relocated local who is going to sue the developer, said he had not known about the volunteer lawyers group.

"I couldn't find any lawyer to represent me and I will defend myself," Zhu said. "Lots of people like me didn't have lawyers and other relocated residents who are experienced in this kind of case have acted as counsel. We help each other."

Zhu said the relocation policies were not transparent and residents had no access to them. "The fragments that I know now were obtained by myself through the Internet."

The volunteer lawyers now will not turn down relocation cases.

"At least, it's an improvement," Huang said.

Cheng now receives six to seven calls regarding relocation problems every day.

"For poor people, we can negotiate for a cheaper counselling fee. They don't have to pay the money at once but pay it by month," Cheng said.

Legal loopholes

Huang said he was concerned that the real reason behind many relocation disputes was because there were flaws in the Chinese legal system dealing with the policy.

So far, no specific laws have been issued but only some administrative regulations, which were vague.

"A huge conflict originated from the rocketing housing prices in Shanghai and the low level of compensation the developers or the government were giving to the relocated residents," he said.

According to a set of complicated and vague calculations to do with where the location was and the size of the house, residents can find themselves receiving different amounts of money as compensation which is not enough for them to purchase a new house.

If unwilling to accept monetary compensation, relocated residents may also choose to go to an apartment but one that is far away from the downtown area.

"The inconvenience of transport makes them unwilling to live in the suburbs," Huang said.

The areas affected by demolitions were full of old, small houses. Several generations of families had lived in a house of around 10 square metres.

The amount of money often seems incredible to the poorer residents who have lived in the rundown houses for many years.

While it is the government's point of view that the relocation will help residents improve their living conditions, it is not always what the residents want.

"It's just like when you were happy watching programmes on a 250-yuan black and white television set. Then someone forces you to buy a 2,500-yuan colour television. It seems to be much better, but you have to pay 2,250 yuan by yourself," Huang said.

The local government, which lacks all the necessary funds to reconstruct the city's old housing, leases the land to real estate developers.

Relocations are the result of two main factors - city infrastructure construction and building plans by property developers.

As far as infrastructure construction is concerned, the problems are whether the compensation policies are reasonable.

Government profit

When developers are involved, Huang said that sometimes the government has "unfairly forcibly intervened" to make a big profit.

One well-known relocation dispute in Shanghai was over the redevelopment in Xintiandi where a house had to make way for a restaurant.

The government was able to persuade the house owner to move out after taking forcible measures. The owner received 1 million yuan (US$120,000) as compensation.

Huang said the government then turned around and sold the house to the developer for 12 million yuan (US$1.45 million).

The same situation happened to Huang's high school teacher, who had a 500-square-metre house and land near the same area.

The government asked the teacher and his family to move saying the area would be turned into a park.

Huang's teacher got 1.7 million yuan (US$205,000). Soon after, an apartment block was built on the land and the deal between the government and the developer was settled at 35 million yuan (US$4.2 million).

Huang said in this kind of situations, only the house owners and the developers should be involved so the two sides can negotiate the price.

"The government ought not to intervene to make a profit and to force the residents to move out," Huang said.