When the tenancy contract expired, the tenant's belongings were not emptied, and the court ordered the tenant to pay the occupancy fee

After the tenant quits the lease, if the tenant's belongings are not emptied, can the landlord demand rent? Recently, a reporter from the Beijing News learned that the Dongcheng District People's Court of Beijing Municipality heard a case of a dispute over a housing lease contract. In this case, after the tenant vacated the house at the expiration date, the tenant had some of his belongings not emptied, and the court ordered the tenant to pay the occupancy fee within a reasonable period of time, and the landlord's claim for the remaining part of the rent was not supported because the landlord failed to fulfill its obligation to repossess the property in a timely manner to avoid further losses.

When the property expires, the tenant's belongings are not emptied, and the landlord refuses to return the deposit and continues to ask for rent

Hong and Li signed a housing lease contract on May 24, 2017, stipulating that Li would lease a house rented by Hong, and the housing lease period would be from June 1, 2017 to May 31, 2022, and the agreed rent standard would be 6,000 yuan per month, and after the end of each lease year, the monthly rent for the new lease year would increase by 200 yuan, and so on until the contract expired. At the same time, the contract stipulates that the deposit is 6,000 yuan for the first month's rent, and it is agreed that the deposit can be deducted from the rent, liquidated damages and other expenses that should be borne by Li after the contract expires or is terminated, and the remaining part is returned. After the expiration of the contract period, the two parties will renew the lease for one year through WeChat communication, with a rent standard of 6,600 yuan, and then renew the lease for another month, and the lease period will end on June 30, 2023.

At the end of June 2023, Li proposed to Hong to terminate the contract and return the deposit, and Hong agreed to terminate the contract. On June 25, Li moved out of the rented house, but when Hong received the house, he found that some of Li's belongings were still left in the house and had not been moved out, so Hong did not agree to return the deposit. In this case, Li refused to return the house key. On June 30, Hong changed the lock of the house and installed monitoring. Later, Hong contacted Li to empty the items in the house, but Li did not reply.

Hong believes that after the expiration of the lease, Li left items in the house and did not empty them in time, causing the house to be unable to be used normally and causing losses to himself, and sued the court to require Li to pay the rent of 34,000 yuan for the period from July 1, 2023 to November 7, 2023 (calculated according to the standard of 8,000 yuan per month, according to the market price claim), and at the same time required Li to return the remaining keys and clean up the items left in the house.

Li said that he moved out of the leased house on June 25, 2023, and verbally informed Hong that he had vacated the house, and also returned part of the keys to the intermediary, so the lease relationship between the two parties was terminated on June 25, 2023. Regarding the return of the house key, Li said that on June 25, 2023, he handed over the commonly used wooden door key to the intermediary, and the anti-theft door was not usually used, so he forgot to return it, and the bedroom door was not locked, so the rest of the keys were not returned. In addition, Li said that because the relationship between the two parties was good at that time, he knew that Hong needed to rent the house again, so when he moved out, he told Hong that the items left in the house would be disposed of by Hong. Li believes that since Hong replaced the house key and installed monitoring on June 25, he has never entered the house, let alone used the house, so he did not agree to pay Hong the usage fee for the period.

In the course of the litigation, Hong submitted a number of photos of the house involved in the case, which can prove that Li's bunk bed and several cabinets were retained in the house involved in the case. On November 7, 2023, the two parties went to the house involved in the case, and Li returned the remaining keys to the house involved in the case to Hong, and cleared the items in the house.

The court ordered the tenant to pay a royalty

After trial, the Dongcheng Court held that regarding the time of termination of the contract, Li moved out of the house involved in the case on June 25, 2023, and handed over the key to the wooden door of the house involved in the case to the real estate agent according to Hong's request, so Hong had actually controlled the house involved in the case on June 25, 2023, and the lease contract involved in the case was terminated on that date.

Regarding the rent for the period from June 26, 2023 to November 7, 2023, as claimed by Hong. The court held that upon the expiration of the lease term, the lessee should return the leased property. The returned leased property shall conform to the state in which it is used in accordance with the agreement or according to the nature of the leased item. Considering that there were some items in the house involved in the case that had not been emptied by Li, Hong had asked Li to empty the items, but Li did not submit evidence to prove that he had told Hong to give up the items in the house, and Li should pay the house occupancy and use fees. At the same time, Hong, as the lessor, has the obligation to take over the house in a timely manner and avoid the expansion of losses, and he may not claim the occupancy fee for the house indefinitely on the grounds that there are tenants' items in the house. Therefore, the court ordered Li to pay Hong 1,100 yuan for the period from June 26, 2023 to June 30, 2023, and rejected Hong's other litigation claims. In view of the fact that Li's previous deposit was not returned, Hong should return the remaining deposit after deducting the possession fee of 1,100 yuan to Li.

After the first-instance judgment was announced, Hong was dissatisfied with the judgment and appealed, and the original judgment was upheld in the second-instance trial. The case is now in force.

The judge reminded that there should be a clear agreement on the items left behind, and if there is no agreement, they should be properly disposed of in a timely manner

According to the analysis of Huang Bizhen, the trial judge of this case, according to Article 591 of the Civil Code, after one of the parties breaches the contract, the other party shall take appropriate measures to prevent the expansion of losses; The reasonable expenses incurred by the parties in preventing the expansion of losses shall be borne by the breaching party. In this case, after the lessor Li actually moved out of the house and the contract was terminated, although Li still had some items left, Hong failed to take over the house in time to avoid the expansion of losses, and should also bear the adverse consequences arising therefrom.

Huang Bizhen suggested that the lessor and the lessee should try to take into account the terms of the delivery of the house and the disposal of the left items when signing the terms of the lease contract, and clearly stipulate in the contract in advance that the left items in the house can be disposed of by the lessor itself to avoid disputes. If the parties have not expressly agreed that, in accordance with the above-mentioned legal provisions, the act of the breaching party causes damages, the lessor shall take derogation measures and may promptly notify the lessee and give the lessee a reasonable period of time to empty the goods when disposing of the lessee's property. At the same time, the tenant, as the tenant, should perform the relevant obligations in a timely manner upon the expiration of the lease term, such as vacating the house and emptying the items, so as to ensure that the normal use of the house or the re-lease of the house is not affected, so as to avoid losses to the lessor due to improper performance of obligations.

Beijing News reporter Mu Hongju Editor Liu Qian Proofreader Li Lijun