China Overseas Chinese Network, December 7th. According to the US "World Journal" report, Mrs. Chua in New York, the United States, is very angry when she mentions the rent.
She currently has three houses for rent, two are residential houses and one is a shop.
The tenant of a house did not pay the rent for half a year, and in the end she had to subsidize more than 10,000 yuan (USD, the same below) to let her move out.
The tenants of another house enjoy government benefits.
Because of the epidemic, government payments have decreased, but tenants not only do not make up for the reduced part, but also refuse to pay the out-of-pocket part.
One of her shops did not receive the rent for half a year. The tenant knew to her that, “You can go and sue me.” She was going to sue after the epidemic improved and the court opened.
"New York Small Landlords" (New York Small Landlords, NYSL) founder and president He Delin said, "New York Small Landlords" is a newly established company that protects members.
Based on the U.S. housing ownership rate and the ratio of the Chinese population in New York City, he estimated that there are approximately 344,000 Chinese homeowners in New York, of which 86,000 are landlords.
"Our group has more than 800 members, accounting for about 1% of Chinese landlords in New York." He found from monthly membership surveys that "a high percentage" of rent owed.
In April and May, when the epidemic was the worst, about half of the landlords did not receive the rent; in October, although the situation had improved, more than 10% of the rent was delayed.
He said that the company will launch a "rental chase" business to serve landlord members.
The tenant refuses to pay the rent: You can sue us
Mrs. Cai is from Hong Kong, China.
She said that one of her houses was rented to a Hispanic couple, and the couple subletted it to several of their friends.
"In the past six years, they have paid rent on time, sometimes a little later, but still pay." However, since March this year, they began to refuse to pay rent.
She went to seek rent. The Hispanic couple said that the New York City government had issued a notice that they could not pay the rent.
"They even said that you can sue us." She went to consult a lawyer and learned that "if the court does not open, it is useless for you to sue."
She didn't sue the tenants, but watched them live for free.
After deliberation, she decided to post money for them to move out, so she discussed with the tenants and found them another house.
The tenant replied "no money", she paid to hire a real estate agent to find a house for the tenant, but asked her to pay all the expenses of 12,100 yuan.
"I paid a brokerage fee of 5,700 yuan and a deposit and rent of 3200 yuan."
But the tenant said that they would not sign any documents.
In the end, the tenant stayed in this house for another month before leaving.
After the tenant moved out, she received an electricity bill, "a total of more than 2,000 yuan."
She said that the tenant couple had jobs and ate better than her, but they just didn't pay the rent.
Therefore, she took back the house, preferring to leave it idle rather than rent it out.
"The landlord is also very difficult. The law protects tenants without reason."
Her other house is rented to families on government benefits.
"The government pays 1,722 yuan a month for rent, and the tenants make up for the shortfall." However, due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the government reduced the rent paid to 1,690 yuan. Paid part.
She has a store for rent.
Tenants work in government departments and do not pay rent for six months.
She came to the door, the tenant said that she had no money, and asked her to sue him in court.
The consulting lawyer learned that there is no way to sue now and the law is beneficial to the tenant.
"Now, the small landlord is suffering, but no one cares."
She said that the Tenant Protection Regulation passed by the New York State Government last year was unreasonable.
Because of this law to protect tenants, courts tend to tenants in disputes between landlords and tenants.
Tenants can find a reason at random and can postpone the court hearing so that they can live for free.
"I heard that some landlords are selling houses for this reason. Because they bring tenants, the house prices are very cheap."
Mrs. Cai immigrated to the United States 40 years ago. She and her family worked hard to save money and bought a few houses, hoping to spend her twilight years on rent.
However, after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the government only considers the interests of tenants, "in fact, it is very difficult for landlords."
She said, "After encountering this situation, I decided to return to China for the elderly in the future."
"Living for eight months for nothing, he would not even pay the water bill"
Michelle, who is also the landlord, said that she recently invested in a commercial store and rented out the store to a foreigner to open a bar.
However, the bar closed in March this year, and tenants will not pay rent from April.
"I asked him to pay a little bit, but he said that there was no business and he didn't pay anything." "From March to November, I didn't pay the rent for eight months and owed nearly 40,000 yuan in rent."
In addition to not paying rent, the tenant does not even pay for water.
"We gave him the water bill, but he didn't pay it. Because it was our name on the water bill, we had to pay." She said the landlord had to pay the loan, land tax and insurance.
Some lending banks agreed to delay the mortgage for three months, and some banks delayed it for six months, but her lending bank did not agree to the extension.
At present, she relies on her own savings to support, but is worried that the epidemic will drag on for too long.
She said that tenants who are unemployed can receive unemployment benefits and still have the ability to pay rent, but they do not pay; but the government does not compensate the landlord.
As Chinese landlords suffered heavy losses in this epidemic, they began to ask the city government for help.
Since October, Chinese landlords in New York have organized two marches in front of the city hall.
"I couldn't find anyone to take the child, so I didn't go." She heard that she would organize a third landlord parade to ask the city government to lend a hand.
"The government can't do that, regardless of us."
She said that the rent income is "part of the source of income" for her family.
Her family also rents out houses, and the tenants are better. They have been paying rent since the epidemic.
In the past, she always felt that residential leasing was more troublesome. It was not too long for tenants to come in and out, while commercial real estate was different. The contract lasted for five years and ten years, and the landlord was more comfortable.
So, her family invested in this commercial real estate.
To this end, she hired a lawyer to sue the tenant, but even if the New York court opened, only a small number of cases were accepted, and she could only wait.
She said that in the past there was no expectation of a new crown pneumonia epidemic; without this epidemic, real estate investment income would be quite good.
Real estate can maintain its value and has low risk.
She expects that after the epidemic is over, real estate will return to normal, "I still have confidence in this."
The rent voluntarily cuts in half, "we only have to pay for the old money"
Mrs. Huang invested in houses, stores and warehouses, and now has tenants.
She said that since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia in New York City in March this year, residential tenants began to default on arrears, mainly due to unemployment.
"We understand the tenants and cut the rent by half." By June, the shop had no business, and she halved the shop rent; her warehouse had no rental income, and later applied for relief.
She said that half of her tenants are Chinese, and the other half are of foreign ethnicity, including Koreans and Hispanics.
She can understand the tenant's difficulties and take the initiative to reduce rent.
"We don't have a job, we just have to pay for it." In July and August, the tenants paid the rent on time, and some tenants even made up the rent.
She said that in short, she lost more than 10,000 yuan in rent.
Her shop was rented to a Chinese, who also asked for a rent reduction.
She said: "We can't reduce it anymore, and the loss can't all fall on us."
She also had conflicts with tenants.
More than two years ago, one of her family homes was leased to Chinese tenants.
In a four-bedroom and one-living house, the tenant said that he would live with relatives.
But in fact, he subletted the room and became the second landlord himself.
"He lives in one room by himself and rents out the remaining rooms." Because some tenants didn't pay the rent, the second landlord couldn't keep it going, so he withdrew the rent.
Second, the landlord did not want the rent, so he moved out and handed over the conflict to the landlord.
An old man in his 70s does not pay the rent.
"Not only did this tenant not pay the rent, but he often brought different women here overnight." For this reason, other tenants also moved out.
She also couldn't drive away the tenant and prepared to sue the second landlord.
The second landlord, afraid of getting into a lawsuit, came back to help her deal with the tenant, and finally let the old gentleman move out.
She estimates that in the next five years, there will not be much new real estate.
The new crown pneumonia epidemic has changed the way Americans work. Now, people can work from home, so commercial real estate will be affected, such as the rental of shops and warehouses.
"After this epidemic, no more real estate investment"
Mrs. Huang's family used to be a small business, and after earning money, they started investing in real estate.
She cooperates with friends and invests together. “However, as a landlord, we have to pay mortgages and land taxes, which is a lot of pressure.” She said that after the epidemic, she will no longer invest in real estate.
The landlord, Mrs. Huang, said that New York State has launched a project to help landlords tide over difficulties and can apply for rent subsidies from the state government if necessary.
According to media reports, this rent subsidy totals 100 million yuan.
Nearly 100,000 people applied for state rent subsidies, but only 40% were approved.
She said that this application must be made by the tenant, but some tenants do not consider the landlord’s difficulties.
Therefore, she did not apply.
"I heard that many landlords didn't raise it."
She believes that this subsidy is simply not enough.
At the same time, the application procedures are too complicated and prohibitive.
She said that some tenants have no identity and are afraid to apply.
"This subsidy is just a gesture and cannot solve practical problems." She said that her company applied for unemployment compensation.
During the epidemic, some people fraudulently used their company's employees to apply for unemployment benefits. She reported to the government, but no department took care of this.
She said that as long as she has applied for unemployment benefits, the amount of unemployment insurance for employees will increase in the future.
"There is no loss at present, and there will be trouble in the future." For example, it will be more difficult for a company to apply for a loan in the future.
She said that the landlord must understand the tenant and not offend the tenant; however, there are also tenants who want to save money and have to exploit legal loopholes.
Some tenants are actually able to pay rent, but when they see that government policies are profitable, they start not paying rent.
She revealed that landlords are most afraid of rent tyrants, "they try to exploit loopholes in the law to take advantage of them."
In 2017, when the New York small landlord group was just established, she joined the group.
She already had a house for rent at the time, but had no management experience, and wanted to ask how to drive away bad tenants in the group.
She said that the landlords are in the group to communicate their own situation.
She found that some landlords could not collect rent for a year.
Ms. Li, 75, said that after graduating from university, she went to study in the United States from China in 1974, studying while working, and found a job after graduation.
Because she needed a place to live, she and her sisters jointly funded and bought a three-family house.
Later, they moved out one after another, and she bought the whole house.
In addition, she has a two-family house and a co-op apartment.
She said that all her tenants pay rent because her rent is very cheap, and some "rents have not increased in 20 years."
"When I mention a rent increase, they smashed their faces"
Ms. Li said that she has been a landlord for 30 years and has seen all kinds of tenants.
Her tenants come from a wide range of countries, including China, Singapore, India, Japan, and of course other ethnicities.
In short, there are good tenants and bad tenants everywhere, "I often encounter tenants who do not pay the rent."
Now, all her houses are rented out, but the tenants have lived there for more than ten or twenty years.
"When I mentioned a rent increase, they would lose face." She felt relieved and stopped the rent increase.
The epidemic has also affected her rent.
She said that her second floor was rented to a Japanese tenant, but the tenant returned to Japan during the epidemic.
Because of the impact of the epidemic, fewer Japanese came to the United States.
She hoped that the house would still be rented to the Japanese, but "the house is still vacant."
She said that she had a co-op apartment, and when she said the rent increased, the tenant would not do it or move out.
She thought, if you want to hire a lawyer to rush people, you have to spend money, and you don't know what the next tenant will be like, so just forget it.
Because the mortgage has already been paid off, she has no pressure to repay the loan, so she can not increase her rent.
Now, some of the houses she bought more than 100,000 yuan have risen to more than 1 million yuan. Therefore, the maintenance cost of the old houses is very high.
New York City’s land taxes are high, and utilities are expensive.
"My monthly water bill is more than 300 yuan." If you want to sell it, you have to pay nearly half of the tax, so she does not sell the house and has to rent it out.
Ms. Li said that both New York State and New York City have laws protecting tenants.
The government’s law to protect tenants has troubled landlords.
She believes that this law gives tenants an excuse to not pay rent and "spoil the tenant."
If the landlord has a dispute with the tenant, the landlord has to ask a lawyer to sue.
(Han Jie)