The landlord renovated the rental house without consent and claimed for "restoration" losses from the tenant.

If the tenant renovates the rental property without consent, does the landlord have the right to request that it be restored to its original condition? Recently, the Jimei Court heard such a rental contract dispute case, and the final first-instance judgment required the tenant to compensate for the loss of restoring the house to its original condition.

It is understood that the tenant Xiao Wang previously rented an 800-square-meter house in Jimei District from the landlord Lao Gao. The two parties signed a "House Lease Contract" and Xiao Wang paid a performance bond to Lao Gao. 20,000 yuan, and it was agreed that the deposit would be returned to Xiao Wang after the expiration of the contract.

After renting, Xiao Wang renovated the house and added glass doors, partition walls, bathrooms, kitchens and corresponding water and electricity pipelines. After the lease expired, Xiao Wang continued to use the leased house for two months and paid the rent. On July 29, 2016, Xiao Wang called Lao Gao to notify Lao Gao to take over the house and return the deposit.

At that time, Lao Gao asked Xiao Wang to remove partition walls and other decorations first, otherwise he would not agree to take over the house. Later, Xiao Wang mailed the key to the house to Lao Gao. Lao Gao sent a mobile phone text message to Xiao Wang, proposing that the house should be restored to its original condition as soon as possible, and he also demanded rent from Xiao Wang.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Wang then took the landlord Lao Gao to court. Xiao Wang sued and said that after the lease expired, Lao Gao did not agree to handle the handover and would not refund the deposit. Therefore, he sued the court for the return of the deposit.

After Xiao Wang filed a lawsuit, Lao Gao also filed a counterclaim, demanding that Xiao Wang compensate for the loss of rent and the cost of restoring the house to its original condition. Lao Gao believed that during the lease period, Xiao Wang’s unauthorized decoration caused damage to the house and it should be restored to its original condition.

The court organized both parties to inspect the house site. Xiao Wang proposed that the decoration had been approved by Lao Gao, so the decoration part already belonged to Lao Gao. If Lao Gao thought it needed to be demolished, he could dismantle it himself.

Later, Lao Gao handed over the house to a decoration company for demolition. The contract stipulated that the construction period was 20 days. The construction project included dismantling the partition walls and suspended ceilings added by Xiao Wang, and replacing the ceiling and walls of the whole house. Surface repainted.

After hearing, the court held that although Xiao Wang claimed that the decoration had been approved by Lao Wang, he did not provide evidence, and Lao Gao also raised objections to the decoration. Therefore, the court determined that Xiao Wang’s decoration was “without Lao Gao’s consent”. During the trial of the case, Xiao Wang made it clear that he did not agree to dismantle the above-mentioned decorations on his own. Now Lao Gao has restored the house to its original condition on his own, and claims that the lessee should compensate for the restoration costs, which is in compliance with the law. Therefore, the court determined at its discretion that the reasonable expenses Xiao Wang should pay to restore the house to its original condition was 15,000 yuan.

As for the rent and usage fees for occupying the house, the court held that Xiao Wang’s failure to restore the house to its original condition in time, resulting in the inability to rent it out, would indeed cause a certain amount of rent loss to Lao Gao, and he should pay reasonable rent in accordance with the contract. loss.

In the end, the first-instance judgment determined that after deducting Lao Gao’s deposit of 20,000 yuan from Xiao Wang, Xiao Wang should also pay Lao Gao more than 2,000 yuan in compensation.

The judge’s statement

Tenants who decorate without consent are responsible Accurate)

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