The aftermath of the "lantern damage assessment" incident in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, reflects the increasingly prominent issues of integrity and rights protection in the mainland rental market.
However, similar incidents did not stop there, and Zhejiang Jinhua recently exposed a dispute over the surrender of a factory, once again focusing the public's attention on the integrity of the leasing market.
In the "lantern damage assessment" incident, the landlord's excessively harsh standards for rent return and inspection, as well as the widespread controversy caused by it, quickly escalated the incident into a social hot spot. The negative impact has spread to the entire village, and a large number of rental houses have been surrendered en masse, and the normal order of the rental market has been seriously impacted.
Coincidentally, Mr. Jinhuawei's experience of quitting the lease is the same.
The landlord's almost strict check-out requirements, such as requiring tenants to repair the floor paint to "exactly the same", offering high compensation for minor defects, and arbitrarily raising the pre-promised electricity tariff standard, all show a dishonest leasing operation similar to the "lantern damage assessment".
The use of fault-finding inspections as a means to force tenants to bear far more than reasonable repair costs is really jaw-dropping.
Mr. Wei revealed that he rented a factory in Jinhua, and because he felt that the electricity bill was too high, he surrendered the rent to the landlord, and as a result, the landlord encountered almost strict house inspection requirements. From floor painting to wall painting to corner putty and window fittings, everything needs to be restored to the landlord's standards.
Even though Mr. Wei pointed out the difference in the color of the old and new floor paint, the landlord was stubborn and even threatened to hire a special home inspector, which may be far more than the 50,000 yuan deposit that Mr. Wei gave the landlord before.
The landlord tries to pass on all the risks such as natural wear and tear of the house and market fluctuations, and forces the tenant to bear the repair costs far beyond the reasonable range through harsh quit conditions. It reflects the greedy mentality of landlords who overly pursue the maximization of their own interests and ignore the rights and interests of tenants.
In addition, Mr. Wei also broke the news that in the communication with the landlord before renting, the landlord promised to charge the electricity fee at 0.9 yuan per kilowatt-hour, but when it was actually used, it rose to 1.52 yuan, an increase of nearly 17%, and it was forcibly implemented when the tenant's equipment had been settled, which obviously violated the initial verbal agreement, which was dishonest. Integrity is the most basic moral quality in interpersonal and socio-economic activities, and this behavior of landlords shows that they lack the basic spirit of integrity in business transactions.
What is even more infuriating is that the fire shutter door in the factory was originally installed with the consent of the landlord and the designated manufacturer, but now the landlord requires the tenant to restore it to the wall, and requires it to be painted so that there is no trace of the door.
It is really unfortunate to meet such a landlord, who is obviously chasing short-term and immediate profits, and does not hesitate to squeeze tenant value through electricity bill fraud and excessive claims at the cost of damaging long-term relationships and his own reputation.
This short-sighted behavior reflects the lack of long-term planning and sound management in business decisions.
These two cases have exposed the deep-seated problems in the current mainland leasing market, such as the lack of integrity and the lack of protection of rights and interests. On the one hand, some landlords take advantage of factors such as information asymmetry and the high cost of tenant rights protection to wantonly infringe on the rights and interests of tenants, and on the other hand, there may be gaps in the implementation of relevant laws, regulations and regulatory mechanisms, which fail to effectively curb such illegal acts.
The "lantern damage assessment" incident and its "Zhejiang version" have revealed the integrity crisis and shortcomings of rights and interests protection that need to be solved urgently in the mainland rental market. We call on relevant departments to strengthen supervision, improve relevant laws and regulations, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of tenants. At the same time, the majority of tenants are also reminded to carefully review the terms of the contract before signing the lease contract, so as to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the majority of tenants.