Terminate the contract without reducing the price, and ask the owner to compensate for the renovation costs required to transform the house
Long-term apartment platform "forces" property owners to cut prices causing controversy
Recently, Ms. Bai, who lives in Changping District of Beijing, is a little depressed. Two years ago, she entrusted her house to Ziru for renting out, but since mid-June this year, she frequently received calls from Ziru. The other party asked her to reduce her monthly rent from 6,700 yuan to 5,800 yuan. "Cancel the contract without lowering the price."
Ms. Bai's experience is not unique. Affected by the epidemic, transactions in Beijing's housing leasing market have been cold and rents have fallen. Recently, many owners have received requests for price reductions from long-term rental apartment platforms such as Zirui, ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan.
The owner is asked to lower the price, and the contract will be cancelled without lowering the price
In May 2018, Ms. Bai entrusted a set of two-bedrooms located in Changping District, Beijing to Ziru, and signed a 3-year custody agreement with her. The rent for the agreement was 6,700 yuan/month.
As early as March 10 this year, Ms. Bai received a call for rent reduction from the so-called free asset disposal department. At that time, she clearly expressed her disagreement and non-negotiation. However, in the past half a month, free rent-reduction calls have become more frequent. On the phone, the other party asked her to reduce the rent to 5,800 yuan on the grounds that the epidemic affected the company's revenue. If you do not agree to the price reduction, you will be forced to cancel the contract and ask for a decoration loss of more than 10,000 yuan.
"We are free to provide housekeeping services, and should be responsible for our own profits and losses. Now the loss is shared by the landlord. What is the reason? And there is no "adjusted rent" in the contract. Why should we ask us to reduce the rent?" Ms. Bai does not Explain.
Like Ms. Bai, the owner who entrusted the house to my love, Mr. Cheng, recently received a rent reduction notice, but the other party used WeChat voice instead of telephone. "The housekeeper told me on WeChat that the rent fell by 500 yuan a month, and even for 12 months, there was no written notice." Mr Cheng said to reporters.
In addition to Mr. Cheng and Ms. Bai in Beijing, Mr. Lin, a free owner in Hangzhou, also received a call for rent reduction. Because the contract expired in 2 months, he did not want to spend too much energy on this matter, so he agreed to reduce the price.
Either reduce the rent or cancel the contract
Among the owners interviewed by the reporter, some owners chose to "compromise" and agreed to cut prices. However, many landlords have expressed that they do not accept rent reduction, and the consequences of not reducing rent will be about the same.
On the afternoon of July 4th, Mr. Zhang, the owner of Ziru, who lives in Beijing, told reporters that he has recently received calls from Ziru requesting a reduction in rent, and was informed that if he does not reduce the price, Ziru will unilaterally terminate the contract. cost.
"It wasn't that I proposed to terminate the contract, but I was willing to cancel it. I couldn't get compensation, why would I have to pay for the decoration?" Mr. Zhang said. There are not a few owners like Mr. Zhang who have been asked to pay for renovations.
The reporter noticed that the contract signed by Zirui with an owner stated that: The contract was rescinded in advance, and Party A (owner) should pay Party B (Ziru) the cost of renovation and new configuration facilities. In view of the characteristics of Party B's cooperation in decoration, cost settlement of new configuration equipment suppliers, and issuance of bills, it was decided that Party B could not provide additional separate bills for the asset decoration and new configuration facilities under this contract. Therefore, both parties hereby agree that the specific amount of fees involved in Article 3 of this contract shall be subject to the relevant data provided by Party B.
Suggest to resolve disputes through negotiation
"If there is no agreement in the contract to adjust the rent, during the contract period, there is no reason for the long-term rental apartment platform to unilaterally ask the owner to reduce the rent." Qiu Baochang, director of Beijing Huijia Law Firm, told reporters.
It is precisely because there is no way to reduce rents unilaterally, so some platforms force owners to agree by canceling the contract and asking for decoration fees. So, is the clause about the decoration cost in the contract between Zirui and the owner reasonable?
Regarding the terms of renovation costs, most of the interviewed owners stated that they did not pay special attention. Mr. Zhang admitted frankly: "When signing the contract, I did not pay attention to the terms of the decoration cost compensation."
In this regard, some lawyers said that it is the owner’s own responsibility not to see clearly when signing the contract. If there is a clause in the contract for compensation for decoration costs, unless the clause is unreasonable, it shall be implemented according to the agreement between the parties. However, some lawyers said that the contract between Zirui and the owner involved overlord clauses, which was obviously unfair and damaged the legitimate rights and interests of the owner.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told reporters that in the face of the dilemma in the rental market, all parties are facing tremendous pressure. Landlords are faced with the pressure of increasing the cost of daily life and the difficulty of renting houses; the long-term apartment platform is facing the pressure of reducing the cost of customers and the rent; the tenants are facing the pressure of reducing income. At present, the dilemma in the rental market is not actually solved by any party, but more needs understanding and understanding. It is recommended to resolve disputes through consultations first, and jointly overcome the current difficulties. If the negotiation fails, it is recommended to solve the problem through legal channels.
Our reporter Xiao Jieyu