Contract dispute mediation case between a hotel and 70 people including Liu

Contract dispute mediation case between a hotel in Qingshan District, Wuhan City and 70 people including Liu Mou

Case Brief

70 owners including Liu Mou in Qingshan District, Wuhan City will My house is rented to a hotel in Wuhan as a guest room. It is agreed that each person will contribute 20,000 yuan and the hotel will decorate it according to unified standards. The hotel will pay a monthly rent of 1,980 yuan to each household, which will be delivered on the 5th of the first month of each quarter. rent for the quarter. A certain hotel not only failed to pay the rent for the second quarter as scheduled, but also issued an announcement to 70 owners that the hotel would not be open for normal operations in the second quarter, requiring the owners to waive the hotel's rent for four months. If the owners did not agree, they would cancel the lease. 70 owners disagreed with a certain hotel's request, and a dispute arose between the two parties. They then applied for mediation to the People's Mediation Committee of a certain street in Qingshan District, Wuhan City.

Mediation process

Due to the large number of people involved in the dispute and the difficulty of mediation, in order to resolve the dispute as soon as possible, the mediation committee assigned an experienced full-time mediator to mediate and invited a certain street judicial office The director, director of the sub-district office, head of the district market supervision bureau, community lawyers, etc. participated in the mediation. The mediator first guided 70 owners to negotiate internally, entrusting three owner representatives, Liu, Zhang, and Fu, to participate in the mediation through written authorization, concentrating the multiple demands of multiple people into a unified opinion to improve the efficiency of mediation.

Liu, Zhang and Fu, representatives of 70 owners, and Wang, the person in charge of a hotel, participated in the mediation. Wang said that the hotel had no profit from January to April. If the 70 owners paid the rent for the second quarter, it would cause the hotel's capital flow to be interrupted or even the company to go bankrupt. If the owners cannot reduce the rent for the hotel for four months, the lease contract It will be difficult to continue to perform, and the hotel is willing to bear liability for breach of contract.

The owner's representative believes that without negotiation between the two parties, a hotel directly issued an announcement asking the owner to reduce the rent. If the owner does not agree, it will directly terminate the contract. This tough approach is unacceptable. Moreover, Most of the 70 owners bought their houses with loans and needed funds to repay the loans. A certain hotel should pay rent to the owners.

The mediator took the general background of epidemic control as the starting point, explained the relevant provisions of the "Contract Law of the People's Republic of China", helped both parties analyze the pros and cons, and hoped that the two parties would understand each other, give in, and negotiate a solution. dispute. The mediator told Wang that if the rent is reduced or reduced for four months, it means that the losses caused by the epidemic will be borne by the lessor, which is unfair to the lessor. Although the performance of the contract is affected by epidemic prevention and control, it should continue to be performed as long as there are conditions for continued performance. The mediator also persuaded the owner's representative that maintaining the contractual relationship and continuing to perform the contract is the best option to resolve this dispute. The continued operation of the hotel is also the outcome that everyone wants to see.

Seeing that the two parties were still at a stalemate over the rent issue, the mediator quickly changed his mind and persuaded a hotel to see if it could reduce the owner's losses in other ways. A hotel stated that it could give each owner a 1,000 yuan hotel voucher, which can be equivalent to cash consumption in the hotel. The owner's representative agreed and expressed his willingness to reduce the rent for three months.

Both parties have basically reached an agreement on mediation intentions. At this moment, a hotel suddenly proposed that since the impact on the hotel would take a long time to recover, it hoped that the owner could reduce the rent for another 6 months by half in addition to the 3-month rent reduction. The owner's representative was in an uproar. In anger, he said that the intention just reached did not count, and the situation was temporarily uncontrollable. The mediator quickly pulled the person in charge of the hotel aside and showed that everyone understood the difficulties in operating the hotel. The owner's willingness to reduce the rent for three months was already a big concession. The hotel's losses could not be fully borne by the owners. It was recommended that the hotel extend the rent. This method ensures the rental income of the owners in a period of time. Wang agreed. After hearing this, the owner's representative felt that if the lease could be extended, the hotel's rent could be halved for six months, and he immediately agreed to this mediation plan. At this point, both parties have reached an agreement.

Mediation results

Both parties voluntarily reached the following mediation agreement:

1. The contract time is automatically extended for one year to ensure that the owner’s rental income period is longer;

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2. The owner exempted a certain hotel from rent for three months, and a certain hotel gave each owner a 1,000 yuan voucher, which the owner can use to spend at the hotel;

3. The owner exempted a certain hotel from rent On the basis of 3 months' rent, the rent will be deferred for 6 months and reduced by half;

4. Other contract terms shall be implemented according to the original contract.

Case Comments

All walks of life in Wuhan City have closed down operations, which has had a serious impact on production and business activities. As an indispensable part of house leasing in commercial activities, many disputes arise between lessors and lessees due to rent reduction, lease extension, contract termination, liability assumption, etc. involved in house leasing. This case involves leasing a living house for commercial operations. Since the lessors are all natural persons, if all losses are borne by the lessor, it will cause serious losses to the lessor. The mediator is not limited to simply reducing or reducing rent, but protects the legitimate rights and interests of both parties by giving away vouchers, extending the income period, etc., giving full play to the important role of people's mediation in economic development.

Reason for Recommendation

Owners rented out their own properties to hotels for commercial use, but later disputes arose due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on contract performance. Since the house is not a commercial building, the mediator focused on finding the most common interests of both parties during the process of handling the problem, and finally reached a win-win situation.

Expert Comments

From the perspective of promoting the continued performance of the contract, the mediator guides the leasing parties to promptly change the terms of the contract based on the impact of the epidemic on the performance of the contract and in accordance with the principles of fairness and good faith, using Appropriately reducing or exempting rent during the epidemic prevention and control period, appropriately extending the lease period and other methods have properly resolved conflicts and disputes between the two parties of the lease, protected the legitimate rights and interests of the lessor, and helped enterprises resume work and production.