Is it reasonable to reduce rent during the epidemic, and can rent be reduced during the epidemic

1. During the epidemic period, the legal basis for the tenant to claim rent reduction or reduction.

a) Force Majeure.

According to Article 180 of the General Provisions of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 117 of the Contract Law, force majeure refers to unforeseeable, unavoidable and insurmountable objective circumstances. At the same time, according to Article 117 of the Contract Law, force majeure is a statutory exemption from liability and is not attributable to the parties, and the contract may be modified or terminated if the contract cannot be performed due to it.

Therefore, the legal consequences of force majeure are a direct exemption from liability and the adverse effects of force majeure can be resolved through modification or rescission of the contract.

2) Change of circumstances.

According to Article 26 of the Interpretation (II) of Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China, the principle of change of circumstances refers to the objective situation after the conclusion of the contract. Where there is a major change that the parties could not foresee at the time of entering into the contract and is not a commercial risk caused by force majeure, and the continued performance of the contract is obviously unfair to one of the parties, or the purpose of the contract cannot be achieved, and the parties request the people's court to modify or terminate the contract, the people's court shall determine whether to modify or terminate the contract in accordance with the principle of fairness and in light of the actual circumstances of the case.

Therefore, the legal consequence of a change of circumstances is the modification or rescission of the contract on the basis of the principle of equity.

3) The impact of the epidemic on the lease contract shall be subject to the "one case, one discussion" rule.

The Notice of the Supreme People's Court on Doing a Good Job in the People's Courts' Relevant Trial and Enforcement Work in Accordance with Law during the Period of Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Atypical Pneumonia (now invalid) clearly points out that due to the SARS epidemic, contract dispute cases that have a significant impact on the rights and interests of one party according to the performance of the original contract may be handled according to the specific circumstances and the principle of fairness can be applied. Disputes arising from the inability to perform the contract directly due to the administrative measures taken by ** and relevant departments to prevent and control the SARS epidemic, or the parties to the contract cannot perform at all due to the impact of the SARS epidemic.

Properly handle it in accordance with the provisions of Articles 117 and 118 of the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China.

Recently, the Lichuan County Court in Jiangxi Province heard a case in which Huang, the owner of the barbershop, sued his landlord Qiu and asked for a reduction or exemption from the epidemic period.

Relief can be requested. First of all, negotiate with the landlord, if the landlord does not agree to the reduction, you can sue the court, and the court will appropriately reduce part of the rent. If you want to know more about legal knowledge, remember to comment or poke me in a private message.

Where tenants such as small and micro enterprises in the service industry, individual industrial and commercial households, and other tenants who lease the houses of state-owned enterprises and administrative institutions such as ** departments, universities, and research institutes for business purposes, and have business difficulties due to the impact of the epidemic or epidemic prevention and control measures, request that the lessor be exempted from rent for a certain period of time in accordance with relevant national policies, the people's court shall support it. Where the tenant rents non-state-owned housing for business purposes, and the epidemic or epidemic prevention and control measures have caused the lessee to have no operating income or a significant decrease in operating income, and it is obviously unfair to the tenant to continue to pay rent in accordance with the original lease contract, and the lessee requests rent reduction, extension, or postponement of rent payment, the people's court may guide the parties to mediate with reference to the relevant rent reduction and reduction policies; If mediation fails, the contract shall be modified in accordance with the principle of fairness in light of the actual circumstances of the case.

During the epidemic period, rent reduction and exemption is reasonable, and the national policy of rent reduction and exemption during the epidemic period is that various localities have made different degrees of regulations, such as the "Sichuan Provincial People's ** General Office on Policies and Measures to Respond to the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic and Ease the Production and Operation Difficulties of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises".

For small and medium-sized enterprises that lease state-owned assets for business purposes, the rent will be reduced or exempted for 1 to 3 months. Large-scale commercial buildings, shopping malls, and comprehensive market operators are encouraged to reduce or reduce rents for small and medium-sized enterprises during the epidemic period, and all localities can give appropriate financial subsidies to owners who reduce or reduce rents. For the provincial-level small and micro enterprise entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration bases that reduce or exempt the rent of the factory buildings of small, medium and micro enterprises during the epidemic period, the provincial finance will give subsidies not exceeding 50% of the total rent reduction, and the total amount of subsidies for each base shall not exceed 2 million yuan.

Responsible units: Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Provincial Administration of Organs, Department of Economy and Information Technology, Department of Finance, Department of Commerce).

1. Is it illegal to resell a large number of fake masks during the epidemic?

It is illegal to resell a large number of fake masks during the epidemic, according to Article 16 of the Provisions of the Ministry of Public Security of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the Standards for Filing and Prosecution of Criminal Cases under the Jurisdiction of Public Security Organs (1).

If a producer or seller dopes or adulterates a product, passes it off as genuine, shoddy or passes off a substandard product as a qualified product, and is suspected of any of the following circumstances, it shall be prosecuted:

1. The sales amount of counterfeit and shoddy products is more than 50,000 yuan;

2. Counterfeit and shoddy products have not been sold, and the value of the goods is more than 150,000 yuan;

3. The sales amount of counterfeit and shoddy products is less than 50,000 yuan, but after multiplying the sales amount by three times, the total value of the counterfeit and shoddy products that have not yet been sold is more than 150,000 yuan.

According to Article 140 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China:

Where a producer or seller adulterates or adulterates a product, passes off a fake product as genuine, shoddy or a substandard product as a qualified product, and the sales amount is between 50,000 and 200,000 RMB, a sentence of up to two years imprisonment or short-term detention is to be given.

In contemporary society, due to the impact of the epidemic, many enterprises, their operation is really very difficult, due to the inability to carry out normal business activities, resulting in very heavy losses, but fixed costs such as rent still need to be paid.

The pneumonia epidemic constitutes "force majeure", but it does not mean that the rent can be directly reduced, and whether the rent can be reduced or reduced needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

Step 1: First look at whether there is an agreement on force majeure in the "Lease Contract".

The legal relationship between the lessor and the lessee is based on the Lease Contract. After the occurrence of force majeure caused by the pneumonia epidemic, if the Lease Contract has clearly and specifically stipulated whether the rent can be reduced or reduced, the amount of the reduction or reduction, and the conditions for the reduction, etc., the contract shall be followed in accordance with the contractual principle of priority of autonomy of will. Of course, the contractual agreement (autonomy of will) mentioned here is an agreement established within a legal framework, and the content of the agreement must not violate the mandatory provisions of the law, otherwise it will be invalid due to violation of Articles 40, 52 or 53 of the Contract Law.

In other words, if your lease contract happens to clearly stipulate the circumstances of force majeure relief and there is no dispute between the parties, then you don't have to look any furtherIf your lease contract is not agreed or the agreement is not clear, whether you can reduce or reduce the rent of the house, please continue to read.

Step 2: If there is no special agreement or unclear agreement in the lease contract after the occurrence of force majeure, it will be treated differently according to the following different circumstances:

Article 117 of the Contract Law stipulates that: "If the contract cannot be performed due to force majeure, the liability shall be partially or fully exempted according to the impact of the force majeure, unless otherwise provided by law." Obviously, if this provision is applied, the key to rent reduction is whether there is "force majeure that makes it impossible to perform the contract".

In the Lease Contract, the lessor's obligation is to deliver the premises that are legal and ready for normal use;The tenant's obligation is to use the premises legally, reasonably and contractually, and to pay rent and other payments on time. If the lessee intends to claim rent reduction, its claim should meet the hard element of "inability to perform the contract due to force majeure", otherwise it may not be supported. The tenant's "inability to perform the contract" refers to the situation that the leased house has been ordered to close, cut off water and electricity, and used within a limited period due to the pneumonia epidemic.

If it is indeed the above-mentioned situation of "failure to perform the contract", the amount of rent reduction and exemption can be comprehensively judged according to the influence of the non-performance force on the "failure to perform" of the lease contract. Of course, the specific amount of rent reduction and exemption still needs to be determined by both the lessor and the lessee through consultation, otherwise they can only resort to court or arbitration, which is time-consuming and laborious.

During the epidemic, rent can be reduced or reduced, which needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

First, if the lease contract cannot be performed due to the epidemic, such as a shop operating on the street, and is required not to open for business, the tenant can claim rent reduction and exemption on this basis.

Second, if you are able to use the house during the epidemic, but the income is greatly damaged due to the epidemic, the rent can be appropriately reduced according to the principle of fairness.

Third, if the tenant is still living in the house due to quarantine due to epidemic prevention and control requirements, the claim for rent reduction is generally untenable.

1. How to write an application letter for rent reduction and exemption during the epidemic.

The application letter for rent reduction during the epidemic period should clearly state the specific amount of rent reduction, as well as the legal basis for the reduction, as well as the most basic information of the applicant and the matters to be applied, because the occurrence of force majeure events will have a large or small impact on the performance of the contract (the length of the lease term is also a measure), and the epidemic will only temporarily affect the performance of the contract, and the purpose of the contract can be achieved by postponing the performance, and the statutory right of termination cannot be exercised in this regard. Only when the actual purpose of the contract cannot be realized due to force majeure, the parties can terminate the contract, such as the loss of the leased house due to factors such as **, flood, war, etc., and the unusable period of the epidemic exceeds a large proportion of the lease period or exceeds the lease period.

2. How to deal with rent during the epidemic.

During the epidemic period, the rent needs to be negotiated with the landlord, and in some areas where it is impossible to open due to policy restrictions, the change of circumstances clause can be invoked to exempt or reduce the rent of the tenant, etc., and if it is not a policy control area, the loss should be shared according to the principle of fairness. It is recommended that the lessee negotiate with the lessor to settle the matter.

If, after the conclusion of the contract, there is a major change that the parties could not foresee at the time of entering into the contract and is not a commercial risk caused by force majeure, and the continued performance of the contract is obviously unfair to one party or cannot achieve the purpose of the contract, and the parties request the people's court to modify or terminate the contract, the people's court shall, in accordance with the principle of fairness and in light of the actual circumstances of the case, determine whether to modify or terminate the contract.

Compared with claiming modification of contract due to "force majeure", the application of the principle of change of circumstances requires resorting to the court, which can avoid the three-element argument of whether the current situation constitutes force majeure, but it is necessary to argue that the situation is not a commercial risk and leads to the continued performance of the contract is obviously unfair to one party.

The issue of lease contracts needs to be discussed on a case-by-case basis

For commercial lease contracts (such as shops, office buildings, factories, etc.), the lessee can try to assert a "change of circumstances", because the rental pricing has already taken into account the components of business income, for example, the rent of a prosperous shop is different, since the business income is considered, in the case of inability to operate, the lessor also needs to enjoy the income according to the original rent, which will be obviously unfair to the lessee.

For lease contracts of a living nature (such as housing, etc.), since the lessee may not be able to return to the place of work in time due to road closures and other related reasons, and the lease agreement cannot be performed during this period, there is also some room for assertion as to whether the "change of circumstances in Tachibana" can be applied to the rent.

Legal basis: Civil Code of the People's Republic of China

Article 180:Where civil obligations cannot be performed due to force majeure, civil liability is not borne. Where the law provides otherwise, follow those provisions.

Force majeure is an objective circumstance that cannot be foreseen, avoided and overcome.

Article 590:Where one of the parties is unable to perform the contract due to force majeure, it shall be exempted from liability in part or in whole according to the impact of force majeure, except as otherwise provided by law. If the contract cannot be performed due to force majeure, the other party shall be notified in a timely manner to mitigate the losses that may be caused to the other party, and proof shall be provided within a reasonable period of time.

If force majeure occurs after the party delays performance, it shall not be exempted from liability for breach of contract.

As mentioned above, in order to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to tide over the difficulties of the epidemic, various localities have successively issued corresponding policy documents to reduce or reduce rents, such as the "Nanjing Municipal People's ** Several Measures to Promote the Stable Development of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" issued by Nanjing on February 8, which stipulates that for small and medium-sized enterprises in difficulty in leasing state-owned assets for business purposes, 1 month's rent will be exempted and 2 months' rent will be halved. For those who lease other business buildings, the landlord (landlord) is encouraged to reduce or reduce the rent for the tenant, which shall be resolved through negotiation between the two parties. Priority will be given to policy support for various carriers such as entrepreneurship parks, science and technology business incubators, and entrepreneurship bases that reduce or reduce rents for enterprises during the epidemic period.

For units, enterprises and individuals participating in the epidemic rent reduction, relevant taxes and fees will be reduced or exempted according to the actual rent income collected. In this case, the eligible lessee can directly apply the above provisions to claim rent reduction. As to whether an unqualified tenant or a tenant without specific local policies can claim rent reduction or reduction, the author will discuss different types of lease contracts in accordance with legal provisions and legal analysis

1) In a residential community, can the tenant claim rent reduction? For this type of lease contract, due to the relatively small amount of the subject matter involved, in practice, whether the corresponding rent can be reduced or reduced is mainly settled by the lessee and the lessor through negotiation, and there are relatively few judicial trial dispute cases. Because the consideration for the tenant to pay the rent is to enjoy the right to use the leased premises, the right to live and other rights and interests.

Affected by the epidemic, some localities have taken corresponding administrative measures to restrict the flow of outsiders, especially those from Hubei, and some residential communities have also taken lockdown measures to prohibit tenants from entering, which objectively makes the purpose of this type of lease contract impossible to achieve. Of course, if the local ** and residential community do not prohibit the tenant from using the house, but only carry out necessary restrictions and inspections on their entry and exit, and do not affect the realization of the living function of the house, the tenant has no right to claim rent reduction. (2) Can the lessee claim rent reduction or exemption for the office space of the enterprise?

For such lease contracts, the lessee has the right to claim the corresponding rent reduction and exemption from the lessor based on "force majeure" and the specific circumstances. Enterprises and other tenants working in parks, office buildings, buildings and other places have been greatly affected by the epidemic, due to the successive issuance of documents to extend the Spring Festival holiday, postpone the resumption of work of enterprises, and implement measures such as home office, resulting in enterprises and other tenants unable to organize employees to work normally, and the operation of enterprises will inevitably be greatly affected. Taking Nanjing as an example, Nanjing Municipality clearly requires that all enterprises in the region resume work and business no earlier than 24:00 on February 9, 2020, and enterprises need to apply to the corresponding departments for filing when arranging to resume work.

Among them, in principle, foreign returnees must be quarantined at home for 14 days before returning to the enterprise to resume work, so even if the enterprise resumes work, some of its employees cannot return to work in time. Same.