A copy of our new lease... It's in Chinese, so who really knows what it says... gives the saying "be sure to read the fine print" a whole new meaning! haha
As Americans, we like to sign official agreements for every potential situation to ensure that all of our legal "bases" covered. We have created official forms for everything: many times you have to sign a consent form before posting someone's picture on the internet; school field trips require multiple liability waivers; and it seems as though people sign pre-nuptial agreements before they're even engaged. We sign contracts, leases, waivers, and any other document with an official signature because when you sign your name on the dotted line, you are held responsible for the terms listed in the document.
I have that learned that this is NOT the case in China - at least in the real estate market. Signing a lease for an apartment is in no way binding. If the landlord decides they want the apartment back, all they have to do is snap their fingers (so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration - it's more like twitching their nose like on Bewitched : ) and the tenants must leave. This seems to happen frequently in China because many landlords decide to give the apartment to their children when they get married or to another family member. If the date they want the apartment back happens to fall in the middle of your lease dates, you have few options but to move out of the apartment and find a new home.
Last week, our landlord decided he wanted to give our apartment to his son. As the tenants, we have few options but to offer him more rent money. (This is not surprising because Kunming is currently in a significant housing crunch. The city has knocked down many of the old buildings in order to replace them with new skyscraper complexes; these new apartments are pushing the cost of rent up all over the city as the cheaper places have been demolished). We (actually, my lovely co-worker James) immediately called the landlord to start negotiating. The landlord denied our first offer, saying that his family really wanted to have the apartment back. James hung up the phone and we began to strategize our next move. We decided to call the landlord back and offer a bit more in rent (we had been paying below market value, so this new offer would put us on par with other apartments in our area); the landlord said he needed to have a family meeting to discuss our proposition. He said he would call us with a decision the following day.
Erin and I just looked at each other, like please don't make us move! We said our pr-yers though and came to peace with the fact that we would have a home - regardless of the specific apartment. Well, the landlord called back the next day to say that if we could pay him a full year's rent in cash by 3pm that day, he would let us stay in the apartment and we could continue/extend our lease. (Payments here are often made annually, so we pay our rent in full 1 time a year, and the same thing with our internet at our house - we pay once for an entire year). We got the cash and signed a new contract -- not that it is really binding, haha. Oh well, it's the best we can do here : ) And for the time being we get to stay in our apartment!
I am especially thankful for how much our office staff helped make it happen. At one point, we had three of our Chinese co-workers and our Chinese roommate, helping to negotiate, transfer money, and get everything taken care of by the 3pm deadline. They are so incredible, and I am so thankful for their willingness to help in the daily tasks of living here. There's no way we could do it ourselves.
I guess our lesson learned from this experience is that in America contracts are binding, as opposed to China where there seems to be much more gray area. Like we so often say here, "Oh China..." you just never know : )
