Receiving a house at a high price and renting at a low price; attracting tenants to pay annually, but paying the landlord monthly; when signing the contract, the landlord and tenant "back-to-back"——
What is the "thunder" behind the long-term rental apartment storm
Read tips
Recently, many parents renting apartments have broken the capital chain and lost contact with each other.
The landlord’s rent cannot be recovered, and the rented guest room is empty.
Risk warnings were issued in many places and pointed out that some illegal companies and individuals deliberately used the "high-in-low-out" and "long-income-short-payment" model to form a capital pool, and after accumulating a large amount of funds, they would take the money and run away.
The house was rented out, but the rent could not be collected, and the landlord was anxious to get angry; he had paid the money but faced being vacated, and the tenant was grieved and worried.
Who is the culprit?
Recently, long-term rental apartments in Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Chengdu have been exposed to runaways: On August 27, the “friends” of long-term rental apartments in Hangzhou exploded. Someone paid more than 20,000 yuan in rent, and the intermediary took the money and ran away; August On the 29th, the Hangzhou long-term rental apartment "Nest guest" exploded with thunder; the Shanghai long-term rental apartment "Lan Yue" office in Pudong also went empty overnight... After the P2P intensive thunderstorm, the long-term rental apartment experienced high-frequency thunder.
Landlords and tenants are faced with the predicament of rights protection, and the cause is directed at a large number of "high income and low rent" "long income and short payment" operating methods used in long-term rental apartments.
More than 30 parents renting apartments have exploded
As night fell, a room in an apartment building in Baoshan, Shanghai never lights up.
The apartment rented by Xiao Huang and his girlfriend Xiao Tan has been cut off for more than 10 days.
On August 28, the landlord came to the door with a real estate certificate and told Xiao Huang and Xiao Tan that the long-term rental apartment they signed had not paid the rent for two months and asked them to move out as soon as possible.
Xiao Huang and Xiao Tan claimed that they had paid the rent and should not be driven away.
In fact, this is the first time Xiao Huang and Xiao Tan have seen the landlord.
On that day, the negotiation between the two parties failed.
The landlord asked Xiao Huang and Xiao Tan to move out of the property.
Xiao Huang and Xiao Tan had previously signed a contract with a long-term rental apartment and rented the house, but they unexpectedly received news that the long-term rental apartment's capital chain was broken and the intermediary's payment ran away.
In order to stop the loss in time, the landlord issued a "removal order" to Xiaohuang and Xiaotan.
In mid-August, because Shanghai Lanyue Apartment, a hosting company, failed to pay the rent to the landlord on time, many tenants who had paid rent for several months or even a year were driven away by the landlord.
When the victim rushed to the Lanyue apartment office to ask for an explanation, he found that the company had gone to empty the building.
The reporter saw on the WeChat public account of Lanyue Apartment that on August 31, Lanyue Apartment issued a statement stating that "the company is currently undergoing a break in its funds, and the Economic Investigation Team has already investigated the company."
Long-term rental apartments are missing and running away, resulting in no rent to be collected by the landlord and no rent for the tenant.
Many landlords buy houses with loans and owe monthly payments to banks.
As soon as the intermediary runs away, some landlords may cut off the supply.
In order to rent a house at a lower price, some tenants prepay the rent in advance through the “rental loan” model and repay the loan monthly.
In the event of a thunderstorm from an intermediary, tenants may not only face being driven away by the landlord and have nowhere to settle down, but abnormal loan repayments will also affect credit records.
According to incomplete statistics, as early as 2019, there were already at least 20 parents renting out apartments, including well-known apartments such as Ai Apartment and Shanghai Yujian.
As of August this year, more than 30 parents renting apartments across the country have successively exploded. The reason is that the capital chain has broken.
"Since the determination of'simultaneous rent and sale' in 2017, the housing leasing market has ushered in a period of rapid development, and various sources of capital have entered the market to grab the beach for long-term rental apartments." Wang Xiaoqian, an analyst at the Zhuge Housing Data Research Center, pointed out that long-term rental apartments are under favorable policies. However, it grows savagely and has constant disturbances, such as the formaldehyde incident, "rental loans" rampant, and frequent thunderstorms.
"High income, low rent" hides thunder behind
Zhou Mo (pseudonym) signed a house lease contract with Shanghai Yuyi Property Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "meaning") in July of this year. He did not expect that he was caught in a thunderstorm after staying for more than a month.
He said that at the time he was looking for a room through other intermediaries, but he did not expect that it would be a contract signed with Moral.
According to Zhou Mo, the salesman said at the time that the house he was looking at could only be paid annually, and the monthly rent quoted was 3,200 yuan, which was a discount. At that time, the average rent around the house was about 3,500 yuan.
Zhou Mo casually bargained to 2,600 yuan, but he didn't expect the other party to agree.
However, afterwards, Zhou Mo communicated with the landlord and learned that the monthly rent when he signed the contract was 2,600 yuan, and the monthly rent paid to the landlord by "meaning" was as high as 4,000 yuan.
The reporter learned that long-term rental apartments involve the landlord, tenants, and housing leasing companies. When signing the rental contract for many long-term rental apartments, the three parties adopt a "back-to-back" model-the landlord and the tenant are not directly related, but are separately related to the lease. The company signs a contract, which also allows the platform to take advantage of it.
During the interview, the reporter found that the long-term rental apartment platforms such as Woker, Woke, Qingke, Chaoke, etc. that have burst into thunder have a common business model, which is "high income and low rent" and "long income and short payment", that is, paying the landlord. The rent is higher than the rent of the tenant, and the period of collecting rent from the tenant is longer than the period of paying the landlord.
Some long-term rental apartments attract tenants to pay annually with greater incentives, but after collecting rent, they pay the landlord monthly.
The founder of a long-term rental apartment startup company has publicly stated that the bottom rent cost of the apartment accounts for 55% to 60% of the total cost, and the rent difference is 1.6 to 1.7 times. It also needs to amortize 15% to 20% of the decoration cost and labor every year. So the long-term rental of apartments has a longer profit cycle.
Many people have adopted the above methods for rapid expansion out of the pursuit of "short, flat and fast".
A few days ago, Guangzhou Real Estate Leasing Association pointed out in the "Reminder of Housing Leasing Risks" that the high-risk business behaviors of "high input and low output", "long income and short payment" are prone to break the capital chain.
Some unscrupulous companies and individuals deliberately use this model to form a "funding pool", and after accumulating a large amount of funds, they will pay off and cause major economic losses to landlords and tenants.
Market supervision needs to be improved
Regarding the recent incidents of frequent lightning explosions in long-term rental apartments, some victims believe that they have encountered fraud, and the "high income and low rent" model is just a financing fraud method.
The reporter learned that, in addition to the thunderstorm in Shanghai, the Shenzhen police have recently received reports from tenants and landlords that Shenzhen Yuyi Property Co., Ltd. has taken away the difference in rent and people have left the building empty.
On September 8, the Shenzhen police issued an announcement stating that the Shenzhen "moral" case involving contract fraud has been filed and the case is under further investigation.
Who pays for the losses of the tenant and landlord after the payment runs off?
The relevant legal person believes that if the landlord or tenant wants to claim the rights of the litigation, the object is the breach of the lease platform, but the current way to minimize the losses of both parties is through negotiation.
In response to the phenomenon of long-term rental apartments in various places, Xi'an, Haikou, Hefei, Hangzhou and other places issued risk warnings and new capital supervision regulations, referring to the prevention of "high in and low out" and "long income and short payment" business models. "Loan", rent levels, and the use of standardized contract texts are the main directions.
The Hangzhou Housing Management Department issued new regulations requiring that, starting from August 31, the rent paid by housing leasing companies to the entrusted lessor of the house, the rent, deposits and the funds obtained from the rent loan from the lessee shall all be required Special deposit account management for paid lease funds.
The Shanghai Real Estate Brokers Association issued a document suggesting that tenants choose reputable apartment brands, be wary of excessively high rents or low rents; avoid one-time payment of large rents; adopt standardized contract texts.
On September 7, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development formulated the "Regulations on Housing Leasing (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" to publicly solicit opinions from the public, clarifying the establishment of a housing leasing business registration system, setting industry entry thresholds, and stipulating that leasing companies and real estate agencies shall not provide financial services in violation of regulations product and service.
It is mentioned that if a housing leasing company has high-risk operations such as paying the landlord’s rent higher than the rent collected from the tenant, and the period of collecting the rent from the tenant is longer than the period of paying the rent to the landlord, the real estate management and other departments should include it as an abnormal operation To strengthen the supervision of operating conditions such as rent and use of deposits.
Relevant members of the legal profession suggested that market supervision needs to be further improved, and a series of supporting regulations such as relevant implementation rules, local regulations, and supervision measures should be issued as soon as possible to promote the implementation of the regulations.
Reporter Qian Peijian