Posted by
wibb
19 yrs ago
we are planning to rent a property owned and managed by Wheelock, when we received the lease contract though, it so one-sidedly favors the landlord that it's like signing our life away (some of the unreasonable terms include: tenant buying insurance to insure landlord's property; landlord not responsible for injury or damagae if the lifts malfunction; tenant has to pay for window replacement even if it's not due to own negligence; tenant has no right to say no to landlord if landlord wants to put up sign/banner/fixture outside tenant's apartment (including use of window or window frame) for decoration/advertising purposes, etc. etc.
Our agent tells us it's Wheelock's "standard" lease but everyone we asked agrees with us that it's ridiculous. Is anyone else renting from Wheeolock? If so, is your lease so ridiculous too?
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I had the same thing with another large landlord that you're having with Wheelock: it was take it or leave it. There are millions (literally) of apartments to rent in HK, so no need to take it. Private landlords are much less hassle - don't have in-house legal depts to protect themselves / sue you.
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wibb
19 yrs ago
Thank you, Burgundy and oldhand. We're meeting with Wheelock's lawyers tomorrow to see if we can find a satisfactory solution. As the way the contract is, we are not signing.
oldhand, could you clarify the part on court dismissing unfair terms in the contract? Are you saying that even if we sign (which we don't plan to) the court will ignore the terms that are unreasonable? Seems like the concept of contract is very different here.
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Btw, I have previously been told by a common law (English) lawyer that if you once start discussing the terms, you weaken your position later.... the court may say that by discussing the terms yet still signing, you had demonstrably understood and accepted the terms as reasonable.
On the other hand, if you just sign without discussion, you can perhaps claim "good faith" later - that you didn't bother to read the fine print because the landlord was reputable.
English and HK law are very different from US law (I'm guessing from OP's spelling "favors" rather than "favours" that OP is more used to the US system).
I am not a lawyer, though; this is just my layman's understanding.
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wibb
19 yrs ago
"That is why every contract has a clause that broadly states if any clause or term is later found to be illegal (read by the court) the whole contract is not void."
hmmm, our contract does not have any clause saying the contract can be void if found illegal. Maybe I should ask for this to be added.
Burgundy, what you said is so different from US laws. In the US, it's useless to claim ignorance because you are responsible for what you sign. No matter how ridiculous the terms, once you put your signature down, it means you agreed to it. This whole situation is so frustrating.. arrrrgh
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