A Sordid Tale of Beijing, Grad School, and a Shitty Landlord

The BBQ Pit
1

My first rant. It’s rare for me to get angry, but I sure am now. Here we go…

To preface, I’m currently a graduate student, focusing on International Politics, specifically security and China. I had a wonderful opportunity to teach at Renmin University in Beijing for a full year. Looks great on the resume, I’d get to brush up on the language, and LIVE IN BEIJING FOR A YEAR! I’ve been very excited about it for a while.

I applied about two months ago. I was supposed to find out about it on May 1st. Anyone who knows about China can tell you that, generally, China is not too focused on hard deadlines as the U.S.

So, where does a Shitty Landlord come in?

Well, my lease is up at the end of this month. Since I might be going to China in September, and want to keep going to school until then, I need to stay in my current place. So, I called my Landlord and told him my situation. He was very understanding, and said it would be fine to go month-to-month until I find out about China, which was going to be last week, theoreticaly.

Sounds great, right?

Until this past weekend. He calls me on Saturday, saying that he wanted to show the house in case I’m not staying. I understand that he doesn’t want to be without a lease, so I say that’s fine. He says great, and he’ll come by in 15 minutes to show the place.

What? What happened to the 24 hour period guaranteed in our lease? Oh well, I let him in.

He calls me again last night, saying that this looks like a good renter, and wants to lease my house THAT NIGHT to the other people. I asked him to wait until Monday so I can call Beijing and find out about the delay. He says no, he’s going to rent to this person regardless of whether I go or not.

So, what could I do? I’d hate to have to move from this great house.

I lied. I said I’d heard, and won’t be going to China. I re-uped my lease for another year.

What a Shitty Landlord! He shook me down! I can’t believe people sometimes! I’m a great renter, since I ALWAYS pay rent early and fix the house myself. I’ve never called this person since I started renting. He didn’t help me out at all, and in fact screwed me out of China.

PS - Called China today. Still no word. :frowning:

Suggestions? Comments?

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My invisible leprechaun suggest burning it down. Burning it all down.

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if it is month-to-month, your lease doesn’t expire until end of May, which gives you a couple of weeks. he can’t boot you out until then. just tell him that by extending your lease at the end of the year term, as a matter of law it goes month to month, which means you have until end of this month.

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I’ll admit that the Chinese concept of time is different from you’re own, but that is a stereotype rather than a a hard fast rule. Especially in the big cities.

ShoNuff, you realize that the entire city of Beijing and much of the country of China has come to a slowdown if not a complete halt owing to SARS don’t you? You also realize it was a national holiday from May 1 to May 7?

The schools in Beijng have been shut for weeks and just reopened this week, and there were tens of thousands of Beijing college students under quarantine.

The University either has more important things on their plate or they automatically assumed you would be another panicked foreigner and not want to come. Do try to contact them and let them know you’re still interested…

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Bugger all that. Listen to Miller’s leprechaun.

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China Guy,

Didn’t mean to seem insensitive. Actually, my problem hasn’t been with waiting on Beijing at all. I completely understand where they’re coming from, just seems that my Landlord doesn’t.

I’ve been to China quite a bit, and I’m actually most fond of Shanghai. I’m sure they have more important things to do, I’m just in a bit of a pickle.

But, thanks for the advice, all.

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Ignore Miller’s leprechaun. Ignore your landlord too. Tell him that he violated the law by showing your apartment without notice (though you shouldn’t have let him in, really), tell him he’s violating your lease, tell him you’re suing him, tell him he’s a shit for going back on his word about renting month-to-month, and tell him you’re not leaving. That’s right; he can’t physically throw you out, it looks like your bridges are burned already, so fuck him. You are a tenant: you have rights, and you have possession. Go rent a copy of Pacific Heights and take notes.

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Your landlord may be a hard nosed shit if he’s got a couple with money in front of him, but with all due respect his livelihood depends in part on keeping the house leased. If a good quality prospective tenant is waving a years lease in his face, and he’s got to move on it now or they will go elsewhere, he is also (like you) under a decision making gun. Letting you float month to month could potentially cost him thousands of dollars if there is no ready tenant available to lease the unit at the point you decide to leave. His pushing you to make an immediate decision was impolite and abrupt, but he was well within his legal rights to do so.

What I don’t really understand is why you re-upped the house if the Chinese job opportunity is that important. Why not just find an apartment or motel for a few weeks or a month or two. He may be a rat bastard, but your stated desire to keep a comfortable house is what really “screwed you out of China”, not the landlord.

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Astro, you’re not paying attention. The LEASE is not up until the end of May. The landlord has NO LEGAL RIGHT to rent the house before the lease is up. A lease creates a real interest in the property, which is not reduced by the landlord getting panicky.

Of course, the smart thing to have done would be to just let the lease run out and ignore the landlord’s screeching for as long as possible, then start negotiating a new lease, then start the month-to-month noises. Of course, no decent person will do this before finding out that his landlord’s an asshole.

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Well you’re right about someone not a paying attention Nametag…

I lease and sell real estate for a living. Maybe there are legal landlord-tenant differences between your jurisdiction and mine but in MD (and in every other state I am aware of) a residential lease will have a date specified (typically 60-90 days before the end of the lease), and the tenant is required to give notice that they will renew on or before that date. If that date passes and no notice of renewal has been given the Landlord has every right to pursue and initiate a pending lease in advance of the termination date of the current lease. Any competent landlord would be a fool if he didn’t do this.

The way it was described in the OP the lease is in its last few weeks and the renewal option date is most assuredly past at this point. The landlord essentially said “Either renew now for another year or when your lease terminates at the end of May these new folks will occupy your space” and he was well within his legal rights to make this demand.

As you are confident that this is not the case please tell me where in this great land of ours, a landlord is not allowed to initiate a pending lease if the renewal notice option date has passed? I be fascinated to know.

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astro,

You’re right in that the lease is in its last few weeks, and the lease has a 30-day notice clause.

However, I did explain my situation long before this time period, and the landlord agreed to temporarily go without a lease until I could figure out what’s going on. While he didn’t violate the lease (on that point), he did go against his verbal committment. My naivete, I suppose.

I know that this puts him in a tough position, but he knew that too when I talked to him about it a while ago. He went back on his word, not the lease.

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Blathered by astro:

Read it again, bunkie:

Now, maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it looks to me like Our Hero is getting thrown out before his lease is up. If he just meant that the new guy was signing a lease agreement that night, to begin at the end of May, that does make things a little different.

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Yes… it does make things just a little different.

God you are amusing Nametag! Even while flying through the air having stepped on a assumptive banana peel of your own making you’re still copping a ‘tude. I’'ll give an 8.5 for style. :stuck_out_tongue: