News Investigation丨Long-term rental apartment exploded in series! Chengdu prevents and resolves social risks from the source →
In 2020, news of thunderstorms in long-term rental apartments appeared one after another.
The so-called thunderstorm refers to the company’s capital chain being broken and unable to continue to operate. In July and August alone, more than 20 parents renting apartments across the country experienced thunderstorms. The landlord’s water and water cuts occurred in many places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Electricity, changing locks, driving away tenants, etc., and even some risks of social instability.
Chengdu, Sichuan Province is also the "severe disaster area" for long-term rental housing. In 2020, more than 27 parent rental companies had a thunderstorm, involving about 120,000 landlords and tenants. The conflicts were once very intensified, but they were eventually resolved in time.
What kind of mechanism is behind it to prevent and resolve social risks?
"
Chaoke Yujia" takes the lead in "Blasting Thunder" Chengdu long-term rental apartment market is precarious
In August 2020, Chengdu's "Chaoke Yujia", which involved tens of thousands of houses in Chengdu, took the lead in "explosive thunder."
Yue Xiaoba is one of nearly 10,000 tenants in Chengdu.
In 2019, Yue Xiaoba rented this one-bedroom apartment of about 45 square meters at a monthly rent of 1,800 yuan, which is about 300 yuan lower than the market price.
After seeing the information that "Chaoke Yujia" ran away on the Internet, she contacted the company in many ways and received no response.
Until half a month later, the landlord came to the door.
"Chaoke Yujia" ran off, and "Lianhe Home" exploded... For a while, the long-term rental apartment market in Chengdu was precarious, and housing rental agents successively exploded with thunder.
The hundreds of thousands of landlords and tenants in Chengdu are panicking.
Clear channel reported
government coordination center
in Chengdu in time to avoid the risk of social
At the beginning of August 2020, the Chengdu Public Security Bureau Command Center received a large number of alarm calls about "house rental companies" running away.
In order to prevent further expansion of social risks, the Chengdu Municipal Committee of Political and Legal Affairs immediately coordinated the relevant departments to receive complaints from tenants and homeowners in a timely manner.
After the Chengdu Municipal Committee’s Political and Legal Committee initially assessed the incident, it immediately convened the Municipal Housing and Urban-rural Construction Bureau, the Public Security Bureau, the Bureau of Letters and Calls, the Market Supervision Bureau and other relevant departments to conduct discussions and judgments.
After the judgment meeting, each department performed its own duties and acted separately.
First of all, it is necessary to avoid the situation where there is no way to complain. The Chengdu Public Security Bureau will respond immediately, simplify the reporting process and smooth the reporting channel.
Zhou Gang, deputy director of the Chengdu Municipal Public Security Bureau:
At that time, the command center of the
Municipal Bureau
issued an order that public security organs at all levels in the city, especially the police stations, must not shirk their excuses.
As long as it is the place where the house is located, you must accept the case when you report it to you.
The Municipal Bureau, led by the Economic Investigation Detachment, formulated a unified registration template and sent it to the city’s sub-cities, county bureaus, and police stations. The police stations simplify this basic procedure.
After receiving complaints from the masses, how to resolve them is a complicated process.
First of all, it is necessary to determine whether the operating behavior of the running intermediary company is suspected of being illegal.
Chen Xiaohong, instructor of the Economic Investigation Brigade of Chengdu High-tech Public Security Bureau:
We believe that the key to this matter is the mismanagement and the break of the capital chain caused by its business behavior, or it was an illegal and criminal act from the beginning.
This is one of the more difficult points we judged at the time.
Amidst huge controversies such as "partition room" chaos and "excess formaldehyde", long-term rental apartments ushered in the peak of development in 2018, with more than 140 billion yuan of capital entering.
Since 2018, due to market and policy factors, more and more long-term rentals have been involved in making ends meet.
On August 8, 2019, Nanjing Lejia Apartment, which declared that it "will never run away" just 20 days ago, stated that it was "incapable of fulfilling the contract, having no operating income, and unable to repay the debts owed by customers".
Resulting in "homelessness" for tens of thousands of people.
In the end, Nanjing Lejia Apartment was identified as a civil liability, and the losses of the landlord and tenants were hard to make up for.
Chen Xiaohong is an instructor of the Economic Investigation Brigade of Chengdu High-tech Public Security Bureau. After "chao guest meets home" ran away, he was appointed as the main person in charge of the case.
It takes a process to investigate whether the business behavior of Chaoke Yujia Company constitutes an economic crime, and the most important thing at the moment is to properly respond to the demands of the masses and guide the masses to protect their rights through legal channels.
In the few days since August 4 last year, nearly a hundred landlords and tenants gathered at the location of Chaoke Company every day, wanting to ask the company for clarification and seek rent.
While Chen Xiaohong organized the police to maintain order at the scene, he collected up to 1,000 reports.
Dai Yongfang, who entrusted the source of 20 sets of "Chaoke Yujia", arrived at the scene on August 6 last year to confirm the situation and chose to report the case.
In 1997, under the government's regional reform policy, Dai Yongfang's three brothers and sisters built this five-story building together.
In 2019, in addition to being used for self-occupation, she spent 1 million yuan to redecorate the second, third, and fourth floors of the house and remodeled 30 rooms for rent as a source of income for the whole family.
Upon hearing the news that the long-term rental agency was running away, Dai Yongfang panicked.
Because the long-term rental apartment mostly adopts the "long-term rental and short-term payment" model, that is, the tenant pays the long-term rental apartment for half a year or even a year, and the landlord receives the rent paid by the long-term rental apartment on a monthly basis.
This also means that Dai Yongfang only received one month's rent, and the rest of the rent paid in advance by the tenant was in vain.
People from Chaoke Company went to the empty building, but the landlord and tenant, who were the same victims, had more and more intense conflicts.
All the problems were brought to the head of the landlord, Dai Yongfang. Just as she was in a state of desperation, a helper appeared, and the government organized community cadres and police to coordinate.
After a thunderstorm in housing leases such as "Chaoke Yujia", in addition to the landlord and tenant reaching a settlement on their own, more than 10,000 conflicts and disputes have been resolved through public security organs, streets, and communities.
Basically, the behavior of rushing customers has been stopped, and the social risks that may be caused by running away from long-term rental apartments have been avoided in time.
After investigation by the Chengdu police, "Chaoke Yujia" involved 10,322 houses in Chengdu, and the rent involved amounted to 227 million yuan.
There are more than 2,000 houses involved in the case of Lianhe Home, with the amount involved in the case amounting to 63 million yuan.
Both companies are suspected of contract fraud.
In 2020, in the lightning incident of a long-term rental apartment in Chengdu, there were more than 8,800 reports involving the two companies.
On August 12 and September 16 last year, both companies were filed criminal cases on suspicion of contract fraud.
At present, the two criminal suspects have been transferred to the procuratorial organ for review and prosecution.
Up to now, Chengdu public security organs have filed and dealt with 15 criminal cases involving contract fraud involving housing intermediaries, mainly involving 23 housing intermediaries. According to law, 2 people have been detained for criminal purposes, 8 people have been approved for arrest, and 1 person has been released on bail pending trial.
"High entry, low exit", "long rent and short payment"
!
How to avoid the risk of lightning explosion from the source for long-term rental apartments?
According to the investigation by the Public Security Bureau of Chengdu High-tech Zone, "Chaoke Yujia" has absorbed a large amount of tenant funds by using the business model of "high entry and low exit" and "long rent and short payment", but the flow of funds from the company shows that , Its business method not only has no profit point, but also a large amount of company funds are squandered and used by company executives.
Zhou Gang, deputy director of Chengdu Public Security Bureau:
This is also a problem that our public security organs are currently struggling with.
Two cases such as "Chaoke Yujia" and "Lianhe Zhijia" chased two luxury cars, more than 1 million in cash, and some gold and silver jewelry, but this is indeed a loss to the people. Minimal.
The rest of your losses are actually lost in the process.
It is really difficult for the public security organs to recover the stolen goods.
The police investigation found that many of the founders of these thundering long-term rental intermediary companies had come in and out of various intermediary companies.
Just as the runaway incidents such as "Chaoke Yujia" and "Lianhezhijia" gradually subsided, in November 2020, the Guixi Police Station in Chengdu received similar alarm messages.
This time, it is the eggshell apartment.
Eggshell Apartment was established in 2015 and expanded rapidly and became a smash hit. It will land on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2020.
Beginning in mid-October 2020, rumors of Eggshell’s "bankruptcy and runaway" continued to circulate, and a large number of apartments were disconnected from the Internet and unmanaged. Suppliers of Eggshell cooperation from all over the country were also owed funds.
In November 2020, Chengdu police began to receive alarm information from tenants about eggshells.
With the experience of dealing with the "chao guest meeting home" runaway incident, this time, the relevant departments in Chengdu took more proactive actions, and quickly intervened as soon as the signs were first discovered.
In June 2018, Eggshell (Chengdu) Apartment Management Co., Ltd. was established in Chengdu.
In more than two years, Eggshell Apartments managed about 11,000 housing units in Chengdu, and 44,000 units involved about 46,000 landlords and tenants.
Among them, the number of people using rent loans is about 24,000, and the loan amount is about 140 million yuan.
Government agencies take the initiative to intervene in advance
In order to avoid the social risks that may be caused by the explosion of eggshells, the Chengdu Political and Legal Affairs Commission and relevant departments took the initiative to intervene in advance to find a solution to the risk from the source.
According to Yang Yunkun, chief engineer of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, they originally hoped to push other companies to acquire Chengdu Eggshell Company.
If the acquisition is successful, it means that Chengdu Eggshell can continue to operate normally as an independent company, avoiding the impact of the headquarter’s capital chain break and business failure.
In this way, the risk of running away from long-term rental apartments can be directly resolved from the source, and 46,000 landlords and tenants can be directly protected from economic losses.
Yang Yunkun, Chief Engineer of Chengdu Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau:
We also
contacted WeBank.
The main idea for the connection is to hope that
WeBank will deal
with rent loans from our tenants in a more appropriate manner.
WeBank is very supportive of the acquisition of the company and is willing to cooperate.
However, the chaotic state of Eggshell headquarters has completely exceeded their expectations.
On November 16, 2020, the official WeChat account of Eggshell Apartments announced "No bankruptcy, no runaways".
A week later, on November 24, the Chengdu company staff went to the building to be empty.
On December 4, 2020, WeBank issued an announcement stating that “it can be realized that even if the tenant of the eggshell rental loan does not continue to repay the loan, the loan can be settled.”
On April 6 this year, due to failure to fully prepare to disclose information in a timely manner and other reasons, the New York Stock Exchange announced the start of the delisting procedure of Eggshell Apartments, and the stock was also suspended from trading.
Community grid members and other grassroots autonomous forces actively provide services
In 2018, Chengdu carried out a unified grid division. According to the practice of about 1,000 people per grid member, it recruited full-time personnel willing to take root in the community, discovered and collected the status of the community, and investigated and advised general conflicts and disputes. Today, they are all over the world. In the streets and alleys of Chengdu, collect and solve the problems feedback from the masses at any time.
In fact, in May last year, Dai Yongfang once asked the community grid member for help. When signing the commission contract with "Chaoke Yujia", she had doubts that the company could give her a rent higher than the market price, and she had already There is news that Hangzhou "chao guest meets home" is suspected of running away.
However, "Chaoke Yujia" said that Hangzhou and Chengdu belong to two companies, and the Chengdu company is operating normally. The dubious Dai Yongfang took the salesperson of the nest guest and found the community grid member.
Chengdu was the first nationwide initiative in 2017 to set up the Urban and Rural Community Development and Governance Committee of the Municipal Party Committee to promote community development and governance.
Actively provide services to the masses, and strive to solve contradictions at the source.
Under the liaison of the community, on the afternoon of the signing of the contract, Lawyer Xiao Yasheng explained to Dai Yongfang the possible risks in the housing lease contract of "chao Ke Yu Jia".
Lawyer Xiao Yasheng: In a
normal lease contract, if the intermediary company breaches the contract, as the landlord, it can take back the house, and then the actual tenant in the house can be cleared.
In the case of an entrustment contract, according to relevant laws and regulations, both the things done and the legal consequences of this matter may need to be borne by the principal. This is the biggest difference.
Judging from the contracts we received during the interview, the contracts signed by Chaoke Yujia and the landlord are all "Asset Entrusted Management Service Contracts."
Attorney Xiao said that from the perspective of legal relations, this kind of contract is no longer a simple lease contract, but the landlord and the intermediary company have established entrusted agent management. It is a trust relationship between the landlord and the intermediary company. Once the trust relationship is broken, the legal The consequences of this need to be borne by the landlord alone.
Because of the existence of supplementary clauses in the contract, Dai Yongfang had more initiative in the later negotiations.
With the help and coordination of the community and the police, 7 of the 20 affected tenants chose to move out directly.
The other 13 households respectively accepted the solution proposed by Dai Yongfang, and the monthly rent was paid. The amount was reduced from 1230 yuan to 700 yuan, and both parties bear part of the loss.
Open corporate supervision account to strengthen rent supervision
In order to regulate the housing rental market, Chengdu has established a sound regulatory system to reduce risks from the source.
Up to now, a total of 338 corporate supervision accounts have been opened, 1,256 entities in the housing leasing market have been cancelled, 1832 have been included in the abnormal business list, about 130,000 non-compliant housing listings have been removed from the shelves, and approximately 200,000 lease contracts have been filed.
Yang Yunkun, chief engineer of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development:
Last year we issued several documents specifically, and we asked leasing companies to report to me.
Only those approved by us are allowed to be released to the public.
After the listings are released, rent supervision is even more advanced. When listings are released, rent supervision accounts must be promoted.
When renting this house, the tenant can understand that there is a supervision account at the same time, and the rent for more than three months should be deposited into this supervision account.
Big Data Sentry system
on-site investigation and
scientific monitoring of
enterprise behavior
In order to dynamically grasp the market situation and timely discover hidden risks in time, the big data sentinel system in the pilot is also seeking to scientifically monitor the business behavior of enterprises.
In August 2020, Chengdu police began to carry out regular sweeping operations with community grid members to keep abreast of the business content of the company.
Zhou Gang, deputy director of the Chengdu Public Security Bureau:
In addition to big data, our city’s public security police, community police, and economic investigation police are still in the places where office buildings are concentrated. The so-called new business types of concentrated areas are investigated by community police and economic investigation police. .
Producer丨Wang Tongye Hu Jincao
Reporter丨Lu Chai
Director丨Wu Weichen
Camera丨Yang Zhen Wen Chuang
Production丨Wu Yan and Zhang Xiaomei are superb
(Edit Yang Yalan)