Evicted for the Olympics? We'll see...
2008-04-11 6:01PM / 標準BLOG
/ 會員可以看
2個評論
It's been a while between entries! The reason? It all started the day I left Hong Kong Filmart to head back to Beijing. I'm riding the ferry from Hong Kong to Zhuhai, watching the islands go by, then flip open the mobile phone to see if there is reception on the Mainland network. Instantly the phone rings. My landlord: "I'm unhappy with how much you pay in rent."
My heart skips a beat. "Can we discuss this?"
"Of course. Either you pay more, or you leave."
I watch the waves anxiously as we arrive at the port. Not the welcome I'd hoped for.
Pretty much everyone I know in Beijing has had such a call from their landlord, eager to increase rents during the Olympics. It happened in Atlanta, it happened in Sydney, and now a lot of folks with dollar signs in their eyes are taking it out on us poor tenants. My contract doesn't expire until 2009, but eager to negotiate, I organised a cordial meeting. The landlord told me she wanted to raise the rent by almost 30% per month for another year. I couldn't believe it. In the contract she's not allowed to change the rent at all! I asked if the landlord was unhappy with me as a tenant. "No, I'm just unhappy with the rental amount". Okay...
"Can we discuss this?" I ask again.
"Sure. You think about it, I'll think about it, and if not, you're leaving".
The next day the landlord tells me a "relative" is very keen to look around the flat because he might one day want to put up some flower fixtures. When I meet the guy downstairs, he is a smooth-talking real estate agent. I panic and do a runner. "I've got someone staying over, now's not a good time!"
The next time we meet to discuss the growing catastrophe, the "relative" is there again, instructing me on how and when to move out of the apartment as he coolly sips on a Coca-cola. The landlord then puts her mobile phone down right in front of me and says loudly, "Can you repeat that you are moving out on June 20th, 2008?". I realise soon enough that everything I say is being recorded with the intention of having me evicted. The landlord then flatly says that she never discussed money with me and the reason she wants me out is so a relative can move in. How convenient, the relative can enjoy the Olympics just in time. The 30% increase she asked for? A misunderstanding, she says.
How did it get to this? All I know is the next week I barely slept, chronic insomnia, going over the events in my mind, over and over again. Friends all had different advice, but finally I made a tough decision...
I've hired a lawyer. I know little of Chinese law, and the landlord was always bullying me, trying to trick me into agreeing with her version of events.
Will I be out on the street by the Olympics? I certainly hope not. I've already looked at places and the rents are all through the roof (for holes I might add). At least now, with a lawyer, I can sleep at night.
Watch this space...
BLOG評論 (2)