Last edited by falang; 07-05-2008 at 05:28 PM.
Exactly, if this lady was out scouring the streets for various apartments and taking the time to show me each and every one of them, then I would have no qualms in paying her the fee. But of course she isn't this time, and I already have paid her that fee.
If she or her agency expect $7500 HK from me every two years when I renew the lease, then I will do everything in my power to cut out this bloated middleman, or look for a new place just out of spite and principle (and of course start the cycle all over with a new agent).
Last edited by falang; 07-05-2008 at 05:36 PM.
Boris,
Point 1. Easy, and maybe vaguely useful to the OP (unlike your shrill contrarian posts): insist that the English version overrides the Chinese (a pretty standard option in HK contracts). Check that the new English version matches the old English version. Done.
If the agent did a proper job the first time around, you have exactly the same peace of mind. If the agent didn't do a proper job the first time around, then the USD1000 is clearly going to be wasted anyway.
Point 2. I don't give a toss what you think. You've really convinced me with your clearly superior reasoning skills.
Point 3. A will- sure. For me, it's a simple situation requiring no unusual considerations. Conveyancing and trials? If you are seriously suggesting that a rental renewal is as complex as either of these examples, then anything you have to say on this thread is clearly not worth consideration.
Oasis? Village houses? Would you care to bring up any further completely random analogies? I'm sure you could work Goodwin's Law into it with only a little more stretching.
[quote=shilo507;212803]
About the more straight-forward RENEWING of Tenancy Agreements. Don't know much about this issue, so just relating what I know here.
My brothers own two village houses, and we bought Tenancy Agreement forms from the usual local stationery stores to handle the "renewals" ourselves. (BTW, IF we'd contacted our agent for her assistance - yes, kinda suspect that she would've TRIED to charge us quite a bit as she might've been entitled to... WHEN we were more "green behind the ears"!).
Being "bbc", our Chinese skills aren't exactly 100% (with reading & writing almost non-existent), so we bought bi-lingual versions of the form template and asked a trusted local friend to help us clarify points of discussion with our current sets of tenants.
Then, with little modifications to the template mutually agreed, verbally, e.g. one couple wanted a little dog (normally, we'd be iffy 'bout that as the other tenants mightn't appreciate it), BUT they said they'd chat with them, and would properly supervise the dog, keeping it mostly inside, and not let it "take over" the shared garden, so we added that doggie clause in the list of terms & conditions; with our friend writing out the Chinese sentence equivalent.
After showing all the finalised drafts and before the end of the old lease deadlines, I went, on behalf of bro' who's in the UK, with the forms to the Rating & Valuation (RVD) Dept to have 'em registered and stamped-dutied, for around three hundred bucks each.
The renewal took some personal time, but that's OK. And many of our tenants are long-timers, upfront and reasonable - making the process a lot easier. Great that a coupla them actually called US a mth or so before old 2-yr leases were up. Hm, guess they might've been trying to avoid bro' raising the rent TOO much in this hair-raising market! not to mention any possibly avoidable admin fees
Then again, can depend on one's relationship (IF any!) with one's landlord/lady; so if you're relatively fresh to renting in HK, better to stick with using an English-speaking agent as "middle person". Still... in your position as a tenant being asked to pay half a mth's rent for the renewal process... does seem hefty. Negotiate it down before you settle; OR just pay up and be prepared the next time?
Fortuntately, Farang is obviously going to take the useful advice about finding local language expertise. Your trolling is getting a little desperate.