"I said that I would give priority to renewing the lease, but I would lease it to others when it expired, and I have not returned the money I invested more than 100,000 yuan to open a store." Recently, Mr. Wu, a citizen of Wuhan, reported to Jiupai News through today's headlines "Toutiao Help" that the lease of his restaurant is about to expire, and the contract stipulates that he has the right of first refusal, but the landlord refuses to renew the lease and wants to change the store into a bubble tea shop and lease it to others.
The landlord took it for granted that the lease expired and the store should be repossessed, "The restaurant is dirty and messy, and I don't do catering even if this restaurant is empty." However, according to the contract, under the same "format" conditions, Mr. Wu enjoys the right of first refusal. In his opinion, bubble tea shops also belong to the catering industry, which should be the same format, and he should be given priority to lease.
Mr. Wu's shop
[1] Shopkeeper: The "preferential lease" clause is like a dead letter
In August 2021, Mr. Wu rented a shop along the street in a business park on Jiayuan Road in Optics Valley, and ran a restaurant with his wife and children, mainly selling snacks and fast food, and the three-year lease expired soon. According to Mr. Wu, when selecting the site, he saw that it was close to the subway station, and there were many office buildings and residential buildings nearby, which was very suitable for opening a store, so he planned to operate here for a long time from the beginning.
"It takes long-term perseverance to do business in order to have good results, and it is also the industry rule to sign a contract for a few years before renewing it, but I didn't expect them to let me continue to do it." Mr. Wu said that even if he was willing to increase the rent, the other party still refused to renew the contract, and planned to change his shop to a bubble tea shop.
"When I saw that the contract guaranteed me priority to lease, and I thought that I could renew the lease at that time, I dared to invest more than 100,000 or 200,000 yuan to open this store." Mr. Wu said that for a long time after the start of operation, the business was not good, and slowly improved, although there is a surplus, but the cost of investing in opening a store has not been fully earned, and the withdrawal at this time will cause a lot of losses.
Lease Contract
The lease contract signed between the landlord and the landlord stipulates that after the expiration of the contract, if Party A (the lessor) continues to rent out the house, "Party B (Mr. Wu) shall have the right of first refusal to lease the house under the same conditions (including but not limited to rent and business format)." ”
However, this clause to protect one's own rights and interests did not work in the end, "like a dead letter." Mr. Wu said.
[2] Landlord: If you continue to position it as a restaurant, you can only have priority in leasing, and you plan to change the store into a bubble tea shop
On July 23, the reporter accompanied Mr. Wu to the park management office to learn more about the situation. Manager Ye, the relevant person in charge, said that it was natural for the company to take back the house after the contract expired, and not to renew the lease with Mr. Wu was due to the competitive pressure faced by the park, which was upgrading the business format and needed to replace some merchants, and Mr. Wu's restaurant was one of them.
According to Manager Ye, Mr. Wu's shop is located at the entrance of the park, which is a more important window to the outside world, and the park plans to open a bubble tea shop here according to the needs of business upgrades. It said that if the park continues to position the store as a restaurant, Mr. Wu will have the right of first refusal, and Mr. Wu can renew the lease if he is willing to switch to a bubble tea shop.
He said frankly that there was another reason why he didn't want to continue renting to Mr. Wu, "The restaurant is dirty and messy, their house puts reclining chairs and signboards at the door, and the city management has intervened many times, which has a negative impact on us. ”
Mr. Wu said that he has been running a restaurant for many years, and suddenly he will not do it if he suddenly changes to a new category. In addition, he believes that the contract does not specify the classification of "business format", and the bubble tea shop that the park wants to open is also "catering", and according to the agreement, under the same business conditions, he has the right of priority to renew the lease.
[3] Lawyer: Each company has its own definition of "business format", depending on whether the contract is specific
In this regard, the reporter interviewed Daniel Zhang, deputy director of the criminal compliance department of Shanghai Junyue (Hefei) Law Firm and a member of the Hefei Consumer Rights Protection Group.
Daniel Zhang introduced that Mr. Wu's right of first refusal is conditional on realization. According to the terms of the contract, condition 1 is the same rent, and condition 2 is the same format. The latter is disputed by both parties.
Daniel Zhang said that the term "format" belongs to the term of commercial real estate practitioners, and the whole can be described as the aggregation of certain brands with the same attributes in business. For example, generally speaking, catering, milk tea, bars, etc. can be collectively referred to as catering formats; Children's clothing, women's clothing, sportswear, etc. can be collectively referred to as the clothing industry. "In practice, each company has its own different definition of the classification of business formats, and the word 'business format' is relatively unfamiliar to the general public." It said
In this case, do the restaurants and bubble tea shops belong to the same format? Daniel Zhang believes that the first thing to look at is whether the contract has a categorical definition of "business format". The reporter saw that there was no further explanation of the "format" in the contract.
Daniel Zhang suggested that the two parties could negotiate a settlement or request the judicial authority to intervene in the adjudication, "Objectively speaking, if the contractor of the contract neglects to define the type of 'business format', it should be interpreted in favor of Mr. Wu, because he is not a professional and is in a weak position." ”
In addition, the park believes that Mr. Wu's restaurant is "dirty and messy", which has a negative impact, which is why it does not want to renew the lease for him.
In this regard, Daniel Zhang believes that the contract does not include the internal environment and hygiene of the restaurant in the conditions of preferential lease, and the enjoyment of the right of first lease is not affected by this. "If there are standard terms in the original contract for the environment and hygiene of the restaurant, and there is evidence that the tenant has not met the standards, the landlord can hold the tenant liable on this basis. If the landlord believes that the environmental and hygiene conditions of the restaurant need to be regulated, they can stipulate the standard and breach clause in the renewed lease agreement, or they can enter into a separate agreement accordingly. He said.
Jiupai News reporter Song Weiqi
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