The monthly rent is 8800 yuan, and I still rented a toxic "string room"

New Weekly

2024-07-08 16:03Published on the official account of Guangdong New Weekly

Author | Brief ink

Edit | Tengyu

Title Picture | "Twenty Not Confused 2"

In the second-hand housing market, the earliest string house refers to the house that was purchased at a low price by a house dealer, renovated with inferior building materials, and sold or rented at a high price. Formaldehyde, which is often bundled with decoration, is generally considered to be the number one culprit of the disease caused by "string room", so it has been given the frightening nickname of "leukemia package room".

These houses often appeal to people who want to settle down with their appealing appearance. When the delicate skin of the skewer house is torn off, life will reveal its not glamorous side.

Spend 8800 yuan,

Can you rent a healthy house?

In January 2024, beauty blogger Wu Shuo contacted an intermediary engaged in housing leasing in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, through a rental platform. After the two sides met, Wu Shuo rented a two-bedroom house in Tianhe District for 8,800 yuan per month. The lease period was one year, and Wu Shuo paid six months' rent and a one-month deposit at one time.

Soon after signing the contract, Wu Shuo and his mother moved into a rental house. Because of the special nature of his work, he deliberately chose the bedroom, which was decorated with wood trim and equipped with huge cabinets. In his videos, wooden walls and cabinets can make the video image more plain and sophisticated.

"Sense of luxury" and "exquisiteness" are the primary factors that Wu Shuo considers when renting a house, and then considers the geographical location of the house and the surrounding supporting facilities. It's just that Wu Shuo didn't expect that the air quality of the exquisitely decorated house would not meet the standard.

At the beginning of moving in, Wu Shuo did not notice the abnormal indoor air. He suffers from rhinitis and the house has been vacant for a month for ventilation before moving in, and there is almost no smell.

In Wu Shuo's rented room, the furniture is edged with cheap leather. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

After a few days of moving in, those invisible crises spread: Wu Shuo first had a cold, and then began to cough for no apparent reason, itchy nose, and become lethargic. When the drowsiness was at its worst, he spent 2/3 of the day in a state of confusion, and even if he tried his best to shoot videos, he couldn't control his dizziness between work.

At that time, Wu Shuo had never heard of the concept of "string houses", nor did he associate a series of anomalies with houses. He told his friend about his recent physical condition, and his friend reassured him that it was probably because he had moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou and was not accustomed to the water and soil.

His friend's words made Wu Shuo feel a little at ease, but his body felt more and more uncomfortable. A few months later, he accidentally saw in the comment area of his account that some fans said that his room was a typical skewer room decoration style, so he went online to find the truth and confront an intermediary.

Wu Shuo told the intermediary that he wanted to ask an institution with CMA qualifications to test the indoor air, and the intermediary seemed to be accustomed to this, and persuaded him that there was no need to ask a testing agency to come to the door for testing, "this will exceed the standard."

Wu Shuo quickly contacted the testing agency and got the test report on May 11. The report showed that the indoor TVOC content was 0.826mg/m³ and the formaldehyde content was 0.239mg/m³, both of which were unqualified.

TVOC stands for total volatile organic compounds, translated as "total volatile organic compounds", which is one of the important indicators of indoor air quality testing.

Curtains in the room rented by Wu Shuo. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

In 2002, the state issued the "Indoor Air Quality Standards" for the first time, which stipulates indoor air quality from four aspects: physical, chemical, biological and radioactive. Among them, the standard value of formaldehyde contained in indoor air is not more than 0.10mg/m³ per hour, and the average value of TVOC is not more than 0.60mg/m³ per 8 hours.

In 2023, the state promulgated new standards, adding the detection of other chemical gases such as trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, and the formaldehyde content is also limited to an hourly average of no more than 0.08mg/m³.

After the test results came out, the inspector told Wu Shuo that TVOC was the main cause of his drowsiness. Wu Shuo contacted the agent again to communicate about the check-out rent and rent. The agent said that the rent and deposit will not be refunded unless the property is subletted.

In desperation, Wu Shuo contacted the lawyer and published his personal experience online. Many netizens said in the video comment area that after they rented a skewer room, their bodies also experienced similar symptoms such as fever, swelling throat, drowsiness, dizziness and so on - these seemingly non-fatal abnormalities make people suffer a lot.

formaldehyde exceeded,

Is it good to sublet it out?

On social platforms, there are many people who are attracted by exquisite decoration like Wu Shuo, but who can't distinguish the string room. They shared photos of rental houses and asked netizens to identify whether they were stringing houses. In this kind of blog post, wallpapers, curtains, furniture, and household appliances are very new, and house decoration is very popular, and color-blocked curtains, sofas, cabinets, and bed boards are often regarded as signs of string houses.

In response to these characteristics, some netizens have also summed up the golden rule of avoiding renting a string house - "Rather rent an old house than a new one", which seems to be closely related to the intuitive feeling of a string house.

To a certain extent, this can indeed reduce the probability of renting a string room, but it cannot completely avoid the string room. Jiajia, who used to live in a villager's self-built apartment, said that the apartment she rented at that time was only scraped with large white walls, and the room was equipped with a wood-colored wardrobe and table, and the furniture had obvious traces of use. But when she stayed for less than half a month, she often smelled a sour and pungent smell at the head of the bed, and then became more and more sleepy, her eyes became red and swollen, and she cried for no reason all day long.

Later, she bought formaldehyde detection reagents and found that the formaldehyde in the new shoe cabinet at the head of the bed seriously exceeded the standard.

Yuzu, who has been a real estate agent for 6 years, said that there are two main sources of string houses, one is that the landlord uses cheap plates to decorate the house, and the other is that the landlord entrusts the house to the second landlord or an intermediary, and they will decorate the house and then rent it to the market. Typically, the rent for a newly renovated house will be around 20% higher than that of an old house.

On the Internet, premium color matching is considered one of the hallmarks of the string room. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

"It is precisely because you can rent at a low price and rent at a high price, so many intermediary companies and second-hand landlords do not mind taking over, and even build string houses by themselves, which is also the main source of string houses in the market." Yuzu said that in order to shorten the renovation period, some workers will also buy factory-produced assembly panels, which can be assembled together to form a clean, bright and beautifully decorated bedroom.

Next to the subway in first-tier cities, such houses abound, and string houses are often hidden in the meantime, and tenants are inadvertently caught in disputes. However, as long as the quality of the panels used by the lessor is compliant, it will not produce excessive amounts of formaldehyde and TVOC gases, and even if these gases exceed the standard, they can be removed in a professional way.

A master who does aldehyde removal work in a professional organization said that they can provide customers with two solutions: ordinary aldehyde removal and maternal and infant aldehyde removal, the former is 32 yuan/㎡, and the construction can be completed in about a week; The latter is 43 yuan/㎡, and can be moved in within 3 days after the construction is completed. Compared with ordinary aldehyde removal, maternal and infant grade aldehyde removal is safer, which can reduce the formaldehyde content in the air to 0.06mg/m³, and can also provide customers with CMA re-inspection report during re-inspection.

However, the master also said that although the demand for aldehyde removal in the market is increasing, most of them still come from schools, kindergartens, etc., which are monitored and required by the state for testing. In addition, most of the orders in the housing market are due to the owner-occupancy demand, and the orders from lessors are still very limited.

When Wu Shuo first raised the issue of excessive formaldehyde, the intermediary did not propose to remove aldehyde, but suggested that he change the rent, but Wu Shuo refused. The agent then offered to sublet the house to get the remaining rent and deposit. At that time, Wu Shuo had already obtained the test report, which made it clear that the indoor formaldehyde exceeded the standard. He said: "Subletting a house when you know that formaldehyde is excessive is also harmful. ”

After moving out of the rental house, Wu Shuo and his mother had a series of physical examinations, and although the results showed that they were fine, he still decided to defend his rights to the end, demanding that the other party return the deposit and rent, and bear the indoor air testing and physical examination fees he paid in advance. The lawyer told him that because people are in a complex social and natural environment, it is difficult to prove that there is a direct connection between physical abnormalities and the air quality of the house, so his claim that the other party should pay for the cost of the medical examination is likely to be rejected.

Wu Shuo didn't know what the odds of winning were, and he hoped to set an example for those who decorated their rooms into strings of rooms to understand that not everyone would compromise, and not everyone would swallow their grievances with grievances.

Fight against the string room to the end

On the Internet, there are not a few people who insist on defending their rights like Wu Shuo, and Yang Xiao is one of them. A year after winning the lawsuit, she continued to update the details of her rights protection, trying to help more people fight against string houses.

Yang Xiao is a native of Northeast China and is 32 years old this year. On October 27, 2022, she was introduced by an intermediary and saw a three-bedroom house in a community in Shanghai. On the same day, she negotiated with the second landlord, hoping to rent a bedroom separated from the living room at a rent of 2,400 yuan. After the second landlord agreed, Yang Xiao paid three months' rent and a one-month's deposit, and paid an intermediary fee of 840 yuan.

After the contract was signed, Yang Xiao went to the room that night to measure the size, wanting to buy some shelves and other daily necessities, but inadvertently noticed that the indoor air was abnormal. She suspected that the indoor formaldehyde exceeded the standard, so she asked the house online about the renovation time, and the second landlord promised that the house had been renovated for a long time, and only two pots of green plants needed to purify the air.

The next day, Yang Xiao asked the other party to show a formaldehyde test certificate, but the second landlord asked Yang Xiao to buy an instrument to measure by himself. That night, Yang Xiao tested the indoor air by himself with a handheld detector, and the results showed that formaldehyde exceeded the standard. She synchronized the results to the second landlord, but the other party rejected Yang Xiao's appeal on the grounds of "inaccurate self-measurement results", and said that when she handed over the house to the intermediary for rent, she also paid the intermediary fee, and if she accepted Yang Xiao's request and paid the rent, deposit and intermediary fees, the cost would far exceed the rent collected. He hopes to avoid the termination of the contract by changing the lease.

Yang Xiao accepted the suggestion, but because there was no suitable housing, she proposed to quit the rent again, and was rejected by the second landlord. Yang Xiao then said that he would look for an institution with CMA qualifications for testing, and the other party agreed.

Background walls decorated with wood trim are often the hardest hit areas for formaldehyde. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

After that, Yang Xiao tested the rented room and another room at his own expense of 600 yuan, and the results showed that the formaldehyde in both rooms exceeded the standard. Yang Xiao pulled the second landlord and the agent into the online chat group, synchronized the test results, and asked for a refund of the agent's fees, rent and deposit. As a result, the second landlord directly withdrew from the group, and the agent did not give any more feedback, and the two sides tried to confront each other in silence.

Due to the negative response of the other party, Yang Xiao began to search for information on the Internet to protect the rights of the string room, and wanted to protect his rights through the law. During this period, Yang Xiao found that the string of houses was widely implicated, landlords, second landlords, intermediaries, leasing platforms, etc. were all implicated, and many tenants did not even know which party to be the defendant when they sued, and the landlords and intermediaries would also pass the buck to each other in the face of the tenant's request to surrender the rent, and they were like kicking a ball, gradually losing the enthusiasm of tenants to protect their rights.

Considering that the house was renovated by the second landlord, Yang Xiao sued the second landlord to the court with a complaint.

At the first court session, the second landlord was absent and did not show up. The judge called the other party and asked if he knew the date of the trial. The second landlord said he didn't know. The judge then asked for the other party's current address and contact information, and mailed the notice of the trial again, but Yang Xiao's long-awaited trial could not be carried out as scheduled.

At the second hearing on September 11, 2023, the second landlord also did not appear, and the judge asked Yang Xiao on the spot: whether the second landlord was informed of the two tests, whether the other party received the deposit and rent, and whether she did not actually live in the house. Yang Xiao showed evidence such as WeChat chat records and screenshots of transfers to prove that the other party had been informed in advance and that the other party had received the corresponding payment.

In order to be safe, some tenants will deliberately choose rooms that are not decorated. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)

According to the court records, the court believed that Yang Xiao informed the intermediary as soon as the formaldehyde test results came out, and put forward a request to surrender the lease, and provided evidence to prove that the concentration of formaldehyde and other gases in the house exceeded the standard and could not meet the tenant's residential needs, so it recognized Yang Xiao's claim that the contract would be terminated at the end of October 2022.

Among all the evidence, the most surprising thing for Yang Xiao was a recording on October 27, when she communicated with the second landlord that day, she proposed that she would never live in the formaldehyde room because of the excessive formaldehyde in the room - this recording is considered to be direct evidence that Yang Xiao did not actually move into the house, so she does not have to bear the rental costs of the house during the lawsuit.

In the end, the court ruled that the intermediary should refund Yang Xiao's paid rent of 7,200 yuan, a deposit of 2,400 yuan, and a testing fee of 600 yuan, and also supported Yang Xiao's claim for liquidated damages.

A few months after the judgment came into effect, Yang Xiao finally got the rent, deposit and compensation that belonged to him. At this time, more than a year has passed since she sued.

Proofreading: Meet

Operations: Hee-hee

Typesetting: Huang Lu

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