"House Rental Regulations (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" publicly solicits public opinions
Give 200 million tenants across the country a stable "home"
There are too many people in the rented room, the content of toxic substances such as formaldehyde in the house exceeds the standard, the landlord was bombed by the landlord within only one week after the stay, and the renting deposit was not refunded... Searching for "housing rental" on an online consumer complaint platform, there are numerous related posts Lift.
The chaotic housing leasing market not only harms the legitimate rights and interests of tenants, but also affects the healthy development of the industry.
In this context, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a notice on September 7 to solicit public opinions on the "Regulations on Housing Leasing (Draft for Comment)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations").
This regulatory document in the field of housing leasing, known as the "most stringent in history", involves safeguarding the legal rights and interests of tenants, strengthening the supervision of leasing agencies, etc., will regulate the order of the housing leasing market, and promote the healthy development of the housing leasing market.
In this way, the housing leasing market is expected to continue to optimize, ensuring that people live and live in peace.
At Mofang Apartment Shanghai Ningguo Road, some tenants chat in the apartment’s public activity area after get off work.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe
Savage growth: damage to tenant rights
"I didn't expect the conditions to be so bad." Ms. Huang still sighed when talking about the house rented during the internship.
Because of lack of money, she is about to go to another place for internship. She chooses to find direct rental housing on social platforms and fancy one of them.
After contacting the landlord, the other party stated that the house was "convenient in transportation and at a good price."
In order to prevent others from preempting her, Ms. Huang did not check on the spot, so she bet one and pay three and set the house.
Unexpectedly, after arriving at the residence, she found that the so-called "room" was actually a storage room, which was very different from the pictures in the rental advertisement.
In the room of six or seven square meters, there is a wardrobe on the left hand side and a bunk bed on the right hand side. The aisle in the middle can only accommodate one person.
The landlord pointed to the lower bunk and said, "You sleep here."
Ms. Huang is not the only one encountering the "trap" of renting a house.
In August, Nanjing tenant Ms. Chen felt dizzy and nauseous after staying in the suite for only 2 days. After conducting environmental testing at her own expense, she found that the formaldehyde and TVOC (total volatile organic compounds) in the bedroom exceeded the standard, but the rental contract showed that the air quality of the house was qualified.
She reported the situation to the intermediary, but only received 300 yuan compensation for testing fees and a 3-day rental refund.
What is even more surprising is that the housing dispute has not been resolved yet, and the intermediary rented the house to others at a higher price.
Renting a house is not easy, and it will be even more miserable to encounter black landlords and black intermediaries "buying thunder".
At the same time, the rapid development of the market has led to the emergence of potential new hazards such as rent loans and long-term rental apartment platforms.
All these have exposed the lack of supervision of the housing rental market and are not conducive to the healthy development of the housing rental market.
It is understood that the current number of housing leases in China has exceeded 200 million.
The "2020 Blue Book of Chinese Youth Rental Life" jointly released by Xinhuanet and Ziru Youjia Apartment predicts that this number will reach 240 million in two years.
The ever-increasing number of rental housing populations is like a magnifying glass, magnifying various "niche" problems that were not prominent in the past.
How to guarantee the housing rights and interests of tenants is not only an important part of the sustainable development of the housing leasing industry, but also a realistic issue facing the whole society.
On September 7, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced the "Regulations on Housing Leasing (Draft for Comment)", with a total of 8 chapters and 66 articles, covering the strengthening of the protection of the rights and interests of tenants, the supervision of leasing agencies, and the support for leasing companies And other content.
The "Regulations" openly solicit opinions from the public, and the deadline for feedback is October 8, 2020.
Liu Hongzhang, a practicing lawyer of Beijing Yingke Law Firm, told reporters that the "Regulations" publicly solicited opinions, which reflects the country's determination to rectify the chaos in the industry and remove the "mine" for tenants.
Problem Orientation: Regulate the chaos in the industry
Prior to the promulgation of the "Regulations", governments at all levels have successively issued a number of policies and documents to regulate and restrict the housing rental market.
The "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of the Housing Rental Market" issued by the General Office of the State Council in June 2016 stated that "Cultivating and developing the housing rental market is an important part of deepening the reform of the housing system"; in 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other six departments jointly The "Opinions on Rectifying and Regulating the Order of the Housing Leasing Market" was issued to protect the legitimate rights and interests of all parties to housing leasing, especially tenants.
Some local governments have also introduced a series of policy documents in recent years to regulate the development of the housing rental market.
Since relevant policy documents or regulations have been issued before, why do we need to issue a special "Regulations on Housing Leasing (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)"?
"The promulgation of the "Regulations" is a continuation of various housing leasing-related policy documents issued by the central and local governments in the past period of time, and will play a guiding role in the subsequent introduction of various housing leasing policies." 58 Anju Guest House Property Research Institute Zhang Bo, president of the branch, told reporters that the "Regulations on Housing Leasing" are included in the legislative items in the "State Council's 2019 Legislative Work Plan". The promulgation of the "Regulations" is the implementation of the legislative work plan, which means that housing leasing will be governed by the upper law Norms and guarantees.
Carefully combing the "Regulations", it is not difficult to find that many of these regulations are based on the actual problems existing in the housing rental market and accurately solve many problems for both parties to the lease.
In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the tenant, the "Regulations" include that the interior decoration of the rental room should meet the relevant national standards, non-residential space must not be rented for residence, not unilaterally increased or reduced, and the lessor must not use violence or other illegal methods to force the tenant Evacuate houses and many other things.
The "Regulations" stipulate: "The lessor shall provide the lessee with necessary living space. Non-residential spaces such as kitchens, bathrooms, balconies and underground storage rooms shall not be leased for residence."
This ensures the living conditions of the lessee and can effectively combat irregular leasing activities such as group leasing.
Compared with real estate transactions without online signing and filing, the transfer of property rights cannot be realized. The lack of online signing and filing for housing leasing has no substantial impact on both parties to the lease. Therefore, the latter's filing has been relatively lacking for a long time.
In this regard, the "Regulations" clearly stipulate: "If the lessor and the lessee sign a housing lease contract, they shall be filed through the housing online signing and filing system." "The housing lease contract online signing and filing shall not be charged."
Filing is a prerequisite for systematically integrating big data in the rental market.
Zhang Bo pointed out that once the online signing and filing is improved, the government can improve the management and control of the leasing market and obtain first-hand data on the supply and demand of the leasing market, thereby establishing a dynamic market-oriented rent guidance price system and effectively curbing rents from rising too fast.
In recent months, some housing intermediaries in Hangzhou, Shenzhen and other places suggested to tenants to use rental loans to pay for multiple months’ rent, and then “exploded” before the lease term expired, causing both the landlord and tenant to suffer economic losses. Loan change".
The "Regulations" also specifically regulate the financial matters involved in leasing.
The "Regulations" clarify that housing leasing companies shall not require tenants to use housing rental loans by means of concealment, deception, or coercion, and must not induce tenants to use housing rental loans in the name of rent concessions.
“Let leases and loans go back to the bridge and the road back to the road.” Liu Hongzhang told reporters that he should put on a “tightening curse” for rent loans and let the rent payment develop in a more compliant direction.
At the same time, the "Regulations" require strengthening the supervision of operating conditions such as rent and use of deposits.
The people's governments of municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities divided into districts may establish a housing leasing fund supervision system to include rent and deposits under supervision.
In general, after the regulations are promulgated, chaos in the rental market will be effectively rectified and the legitimate rights and interests of parties involved in housing rental will be protected.
Clear direction: support people's dream of living in peace
"From the end of the solicitation of the "Regulations" to the final promulgation and implementation by the State Council, it will take some time to follow the legislative procedures." Liu Hongzhang believes that although the "Regulations" are not yet legally effective, they can still see the promotion of housing leasing. The direction of the healthy development of the market.
Revitalize housing and increase the supply of rental housing.
Ren Xingzhou, a researcher at the Market Research Institute of the Development Center of the State Council, pointed out that as the process of urbanization continues to accelerate, there is a significant shortage of rental housing in large and medium-sized cities with concentrated populations.
The increase in demand for rental housing may lead to a rise in housing rents, which means that only relying on residents to rent their own houses to maintain market supply is far from sufficient.
Article 32 of Chapter 5 of the “Regulations” proposes that the state encourages the construction of leased housing through newly-added land, the construction of leased housing in new commercial housing projects, the use of the entire existing building for lease, and the use of commercial office buildings and industrial buildings. Non-residential buildings such as workshops are converted into rental housing.
This shows that the national policy to increase the supply of rental housing from "open source" can alleviate the tight supply situation and prevent rental prices from being driven up.
Create a service management platform to make information exchange more transparent.
The real estate management department shall establish a housing rental management service platform to provide a wide range of services.
Liu Hongzhang pointed out that by providing tenants with more information about houses, landlords, housing intermediaries and other related information, the platform can guarantee tenants' right to know and to choose.
To make the management service platform play a greater role, it is difficult to rely solely on the real estate management department. The establishment of an information sharing mechanism with multiple departments is the general trend, which is also mentioned in the Regulations.
Liu Hongzhang gave an example and said that if the landlord or intermediary is suspected of fraud, the platform can remind and warn latecomers to "protect from lightning."
In this way, illegal leasing companies will slowly withdraw from the market, playing the role of good money driving out bad money.
In the long run, information sharing is an important means to improve management and control efficiency and strengthen the orderly application of information.
In Zhang Bo's view, by opening up the information communication channels, the parties involved in the leasing do not need to repeatedly provide the relevant information mastered by each part, which can greatly improve the administrative efficiency of government departments in handling related businesses.
Building such a management service platform involves multiple departments and units. Therefore, more management methods will be introduced in the future to ensure that the system is compatible and promote the implementation of common information sharing.
Enjoy consumer treatment and better protect the rights of tenants.
At present, in the housing rental market, the influence and economic strength of tenants are weaker than that of landlords and housing intermediaries. Once they encounter disputes, it is often difficult to obtain corresponding compensation.
Liu Hongzhang believes that tenants who rent houses from housing intermediaries for housing needs are “accepting rental services”. If relevant laws and regulations can be passed to treat tenants as consumers, then they have the right to follow the "Chinese People The Consumer Protection Law of the Republic requires intermediaries to bear the liability for fraud, breach of contract, etc., thereby improving the relative disadvantage of tenants and increasing the cost of violations of laws and regulations by housing intermediaries.
The healthy and long-term development of the housing leasing market requires the cooperation of all parties, as well as government punishment and support.
If things go on like this, it will be able to clean up the housing rental market environment and steadily support the people's dream of living in peace.
Wang Jingyue