Almost overnight, tenants and landlords on the Internet long-term rental apartment platforms in many parts of the country discovered that they had been cheated.
According to a survey conducted by a reporter from China Business News 1℃, at least the founders or principals of many housing leasing companies, including Shixiang and Haima, have lost contact, affecting provinces and regions such as Sichuan, Zhejiang, South China, and East China. It involves the landlord and tenant behind tens of thousands of houses.
According to industry insiders, the “explosive thunder” of long-term rental apartment platforms appeared as early as 2019. The platform quickly seized the market with a “high income and low rent” model, but it also faced the risk of redemption after the capital chain broke. Therefore, it has been in the industry. It has been controversial and has even been called a Ponzi scheme in the name of renting a house.
The new Ponzi scheme?
On August 31, Ms. Wu, who had just got off work, dragged her exhausted body and had a phone call with the landlord at home for nearly an hour.
On May 2 this year, Ms. Wu, who works in Hangzhou, rented a small apartment in Binjiang District through Hangzhou Shixiang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sixiang").
"The market price of the same apartment in this lot is more than 2,000 yuan per month. The intermediary said that if it is'as soon as possible' and the annual rent is paid, the rent can be reduced to 1,600 yuan/month. It is calculated that the rent is 30% cheaper than the market price. Alluring." Ms. Wu recalled.
So she made up a full year's rent of 19,200 yuan and paid Xixiang a lump sum.
Unexpectedly, after living for less than 3 months, something went wrong.
"When I checked Weibo two days ago, I saw that long-term rental apartments were running off in Chengdu, so I quickly contacted the landlord to verify, and then I learned that the agency had something wrong." Ms. Wu said.
It turned out that Shixiang had already rented the landlord’s house for a monthly rent of 2,500 yuan a few months ago, which was about 30% higher than the market price.
After searching online and contacting the QQ rights protection group, Ms. Wu learned that "high in, low out" is a routine used by many long-term apartment platforms.
The legal representative is Chen Ting, and the historical legal representative is Huang Dakun.
According to an insider of Shixiang Company to the 1℃ reporter, "We have also asked, Chen Tingshi is a'scapegoat'. I heard that he was invited to serve as the legal representative for the funeral after spending hundreds of thousands. In fact, the real person in charge is Huang Dakun. "Tianyan's industrial and commercial change records show that on August 24 this year, when the legal representative of Sixiang changed, Huang Dakun withdrew and Chen Ting entered.
Mr. Lin also fell into the trap of long-term rental apartments.
In April this year, Mr. Lin entrusted his 88-square-meter house in Yuhang District to Hangzhou Chaoke Yujia Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chaoke Yujia") for lease.
According to the contract, the two parties agreed on a monthly rent of 3100 yuan.
In the first few months, Chao Ke Yujia would pay rent regularly, but since August, Mr. Lin has not received the rent from the company. “I only recently learned that Chao Ke Yujia ran away.”
From the perspective of industrial and commercial data, Shixiang and Chaoke Yujia are different names of the same company in different periods.
According to Tianyan Check, Sixiang was established in October 2018 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. It was renamed several times after less than 2 years of establishment.
The company was formerly known as Hangzhou Chaogu Guest Room Real Estate Agency Co., Ltd., and was renamed Chaoke Yujia in July 2019, and it will be more enjoyable until March 2020.
In other words, before Chao Ke Yujia signed a contract with Mr. Lin in April this year, the company had been renamed Shixiang.
However, the salesperson still uses the old contract in the past, and the name of the contract object is still Chaoke Yujia.
According to a report from Hangzhou tenant Mr. Wang, his real estate agent, Hangzhou Haima Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haima") may also "run away."
According to the contract, Mr. Wang signed a contract with Haima in early August, agreeing to rent a house in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou at a rent of 3,500 yuan/month. “The house is in a better location and the rent is cheap.” At Haima’s request, Mr. Wang I paid a rent and deposit for a year, totaling 45,500 yuan.
Unexpectedly, after living for less than a month, the intermediary lost contact.
At present, many Haima tenants have formed a rights protection WeChat group in order to realize information sharing.
According to screenshots of chat records sent by Haima’s tenants to 1℃ reporters, Haima’s salesperson said, “The company has been sealed up and the boss has lost contact, and it is very likely that it has closed down.” The salesperson pointed out that Wang Xiaoyu is the general manager of the company. With its phone number attached.
The reporter repeatedly dialed the phone at 1℃, and the phone was turned off.
The above-mentioned salesperson of Haima Technology said that if anyone goes to collect the house and cannot communicate, it is recommended to call the police directly.
On September 1, Mr. Wang reported to the Pengbu Police Station in the jurisdiction where Haima Technology Company was registered.
Relevant personnel on duty at the Pengbu Police Station confirmed to the 1℃ reporter, "At present, the boss of Haima Technology Company has gone away, and the public security organs went to the company’s office to conduct a seizure. The specific situation is under investigation. At present, there are many people who report to the long-term rental apartment. , It is recommended to report materials directly through the online platform."
In fact, not only Hangzhou, but also Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other places have also revealed news that long-term rental apartment platforms have lost connection and closed down.
A tenant in Guangzhou said that after he had prepaid a year's rent on the long-term rental apartment platform, just moved in, the agency suddenly closed.
Recently in Shenzhen, a group of tenants who signed a rent lease contract with Shenzhen Yuyi Property Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhen Yuyi") are also very anxious. They paid a year’s rent. Now Shenzhen Yuyi has closed down and is facing rent difficulties. Recovery, and the risk of the house being recovered by the owner.
At present, this group of tenants has spontaneously formed a WeChat group called "Implication Rights Protection".
The 1℃ reporter learned from this that this group of tenants involved at least hundreds of people, and most of them paid as little as 20,000 yuan to Shenzhen Mori, and as many as 90,000 yuan in annual rent and deposit.
On August 21, the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-rural Development issued the "Notice on Violation of Four Companies Including Chaoke Yujia", stating that after investigation, Chaoke Yujia (Chengdu) Technology Co., Ltd. and other companies did not report to the administrative supervisor of Housing Construction The department submitted information about the opening of the business, but was outside the supervision and failed to pay the rent to the landlord according to the contract.
On August 24, a long-term rental apartment platform called Youke was filed by the People's Court of Jinjiang District, Chengdu.
According to an industry insider, most of these platforms adopt a "high-in-low-out" model, that is, to get housing from the landlord at a rent higher than the market price, and then lease it to the tenant at a rent lower than the market price. The landlord is paid monthly or quarterly, and the tenant is induced to pay one year or at least half a year's rent and deposit at a time, so as to obtain a huge amount of cash flow.
The reason for adopting this model is that some companies initially wanted to grab customers at low prices, while others wanted to arbitrage cash flow from the beginning, which is a typical Ponzi scheme.
"Change" platform
The 1℃ reporter found through combing through public information that before the "explosion", some platforms had already made a series of "unusual" actions, but there were still landlords and tenants falling into traps everywhere.
On September 1, a receptionist from the Jianggan Branch of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau told an anonymous 1℃ reporter that more landlords and tenants have recently come to report the case, most of which involve the nest guest (Yujia, Shixiang) and Youke. Two platforms.
On June 5 this year, someone posted on the Hangzhou housing leasing supervision service platform saying, “The nest guest has a lot of complaints and disputes on the Internet, and there are a lot of negative information, and they are worried about problems.” In response, the platform responded on June 8. The “handling opinions” stated that at present Sixiang Company has not established a special fund account and has not deposited and paid risk prevention and control funds in the special account. “It is recommended that the tenant pay the rent to the enterprise for no more than 3 months. If you need to return it The deposit must be negotiated with the company on its own. If the negotiation fails, it is recommended to protect its rights through judicial channels."
In the Hangzhou long-term rental apartment market, Hangzhou Youguest Real Estate Agency Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Youke") is a recruit.
Tianyancha shows that Youke was established in June 2019 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan.
On April 20 this year, Youke Ningbo Branch was established; then, in June, Youke Chengdu Branch was established; in July, Youke Gongshu Branch, Binjiang Branch, and Yuhang Branch were established.
In Baidu "Ningbo Tieba", a user named "Youke Apartment Renting" once posted on July 15 that Youke Company belongs to a state-owned enterprise holding and wants to rent a house in Ningbo for a period of 2 years, and promised "only The house is suitable, the price is not a problem, you can add it until you are satisfied", and repeatedly emphasized: "We are not a liar, we are not a liar!"
Tianyancha shows that the current shareholders of Youke are Zhejiang Zhonglan Industrial Development Co., Ltd. (holding 70%) and Chen Juhua (holding 30%).
Also in July, Youke had a "great retreat" of the original managers.
Tianyancha shows that Zeng Ying, the original shareholder, financial officer, legal representative, executive director and general manager of Youke, withdrew during this period, and was replaced by Chen Juhua and others.
In August, Youke Ningbo No. 3 Branch, Ningbo No. 2 Branch, Ningbo Haishu Branch, and Guangzhou Branch were established one after another.
On August 28, the Market Supervision Bureau of Jianggan District, Hangzhou City, on the grounds that “the registered residence or business premises cannot be contacted”, listed the friends in the list of business abnormalities.
The 1℃ reporter found that in addition to platforms such as Chaoke and Youke, there are also some small-scale long-term rental apartment platforms in Hangzhou, such as Haima, which are also experiencing thunderstorms to varying degrees.
According to Tianyan Check, Haima’s current shareholders are Zhejiang China Alliance Town Development Planning Co., Ltd. (holding 70%, hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang China Alliance") and Wang Xiaoyu (company supervisor) holding 30%.
According to the 1℃ reporter's verification, Haima had a relationship with friends.
According to Tianyan Check, the historical shareholder of Youke is Haima Company. The change record shows that Haima appeared on the list of shareholders of Youke on May 25, 2020, but it withdrew on June 4 a few days later.
Recently, some tenants of Shixiang and Chaoke Yujia have found Huang Dakun's personal information, but no one can contact the 29-year-old.
"Someone went to Huang Dakun's hometown in Suzhou to find him, but they didn't find him." An insider of the company told 1℃ reporter that the company's financial funds have always been in the hands of Huang Dakun, but this time he suddenly lost contact and disappeared.
According to the Tianyan check, Huang Dakun has registered a number of companies engaged in housing rental and other related businesses in Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Xuzhou and other places across the country, and served as the legal representative, such as the meaning of Shenzhen that also appeared in the list of "explosive thunder" Wait.
According to information provided by multiple tenants, Shenzhen Yuyi's company headquarters office has been sealed by public security authorities.
The photos at the scene showed that the company's glass door was closed tightly and the "Seal of Henggang Police Station of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau" was affixed.
The 1℃ reporter repeatedly dialed Huang Dakun's calls from several tenants, but they could not be connected.
The tenant has a hard time returning home
In the past few days, Mr. Lin, Ms. Wu, and Ms. Li have contacted many times, and finally added the QQ group and WeChat group, which is a nest guest, and enjoy science and technology rights protection. "Contact these rights protection organizations, everyone will gather together to warm up and share information."
The 1℃ reporter found that the 500 people in the QQ group named "Chaoke Yujia Rights Protection" had been filled up, while the 1,000 people of another QQ group named "Chaoke Yujia Rights Protection" were close to the upper limit and were about to fill up.
There are a lot of such rights protection groups on the Internet. For example, in a WeChat group called "Guangzhou Youke Salesperson Tenant Owner Rights Protection Group 1", the group members have close to the upper limit of 500 people. "It is all tenants and landlords ( landlord)."
It is still difficult to find out how many long-term rental apartment platforms across the country "exploded", and the number of tenants and landlords who have suffered losses is even more unknown.
Only a 1℃ reporter obtained a housing information statistics table from a tenant rights protection group, in which the source information of tens of thousands of houses were registered in detail, and they were basically in rental status, with the contract number, city, and property on it. Address, contract signing date, and landlord’s mobile phone number.
Recently, the above-mentioned Ms. Li and Mr. Lin went to the local public security agency to report the crime. The day they went to report the crime, they learned from the police that hundreds of landlords and tenants went to report the crime every day.
"(The person who went to the police station to report the case) is similar to me. It is estimated that there are hundreds of people, most of whom were defrauded of tens of thousands of dollars." Ms. Li introduced.
Many landlords and tenants began to worry.
The landlord’s concern is that if the house is delayed, it will not be able to get subsequent rent.
However, tenants who have been defrauded of a year's rent and deposit will face the embarrassment of having nowhere to ask for rent or even having a home when the platform company runs away.
"I am now locked out." On the evening of September 1, Ms. Liu from Hangzhou told a 1℃ reporter that she was standing awkwardly outside her rented house, waiting for the "rescue" from the relevant authorities. I changed the lock directly, which prevented me from going home. The police came and called the landlord in person, but the landlord refused to negotiate and refused to open the door for me."
In the end, the staff from the streets in the jurisdiction arrived at the scene that night, and after telephone communication, the landlord opened the door and let Ms. Liu enter the "home" where she spent money to rent.
Author: Wu Mian strong