Tenant indoor battery charging caused a fire and caused death The second landlord was sentenced to compensate for the loss of the depreciation of the house

Mr. Chen rented out one of his houses, but was subleased by a second landlord. Later, the takeaway riders who lived here charged the batteries of electric vehicles indoors, causing a fire, which not only damaged the house, but also caused the tragedy of the death of one person. Mr. Chen took the second landlord to court for damages. According to the Beijing Xicheng Court, the Xicheng Court finally ordered the second landlord to compensate the owner Mr. Chen for rent, house repair costs and house depreciation losses totaling more than 240,000 yuan.

In the early hours of one day in February 2020, a fire broke out in a small district in Beijing. The fire was caused by a 24-year-old takeaway rider who privately put the battery of the electric car in the semi-basement house where he lived to charge it, and the internal failure of the battery caused the fire. One occupant of the building died while taking shelter. Later, after trial, the Xicheng court convicted the takeaway rider Fan Mou of negligently endangering public safety by dangerous means and sentenced him to three years in prison.

Also innocently suffering in this fire was the owner of the house, Mr. Chen. After the fire, his house interior furniture, decoration, electrical appliances and other items were burned down, coupled with the loss of human life, the house will also depreciate, who should go to ask for losses?

Mr. Chen's house was originally rented to Mr. Wang at a price of 3,700 yuan per month until August 2020, and the other party subleased it at a higher price of 1,000 yuan. After the incident, Mr. Chen sued the second landlord, Mr. Wang, for housing rent, liquidated damages, repair costs and depreciation losses.

After trial, the Xicheng Court held that Mr. Wang had rented the house involved in the case from Mr. Chen until August 2020. The lease contract has not been terminated, and the lessee should still pay the rent for the period from the outbreak of the fire to August 2020 according to the agreed monthly standard of 3700 yuan. Because Mr. Wang did indeed default during the rental period, he needed to pay the corresponding liquidated damages according to the contract.

Because almost all the interior of the house involved in the case was burned down, the damage was serious, and it must be fully repaired and renovated for reuse. The Court, taking into account the reasonable period required for the actual construction and repair, ordered Mr. Wang to pay Mr. Chen for a further 4 months of rent losses. At the same time, it is also necessary to pay 48,000 yuan for indoor items, building materials, decoration losses and house repairs.

As for the loss of house depreciation, according to the fire accident, the upstairs resident died in the kitchen of the house involved in the fire accident, resulting in the house involved in the case becoming the house where unnatural death occurred. The fear of a house where an unnatural death has occurred is the general normal psychology of ordinary people. In life practice, if there is an unnatural death such as suicide or other homicide in the house, most people are unwilling to buy or rent such a house out of avoidance and fear, which will lead to difficulties in renting and reselling such houses or the need to rent and sell at a reduced price. Therefore, the depreciation of the value of such houses is an objective situation of real life. The court determined, at its discretion, that the loss of the depreciation of the house was RMB150,000, to be compensated by Mr. Wang. After calculating the various losses, Mr. Wang was finally sentenced to compensate the owner of the house, Mr. Chen, for a total of more than 240,000 yuan.

Trainee reporter Wang Jingyi

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Li Tiezhu