On Protecting Subtenants In The Relationship Of House-sublettings

With the development of social economy and the prosperity of rental market inChina, here comes large numbers of disputes in house-subletting. The subtenants arethe users who directly occupy the apartment, and the rights to occupy and use thehouse are from the lessors’ agreement. If the lessees hide the facts that thehouse-subletting is without the consent of the lessors, the subtenants’ interests wouldbe aggressed. Although there are statutory rules about house-subletting, they aremainly from the lessors’ aspects instead of protecting the subtenants’ interests. Inthis triangle relationships, subtenant is the weakest one, so it is necessary to discussthe protection of subtenants’ interests. This paper analyses the inadequacy of currentlaws in protecting subtenants’ interests and offers a suggestion in improving thehouse-subletting system, which aims at providing a legal protection for thesubtenants’ interests.This paper consists of three sections.The first part is the theoretical basis of house-subletting, which aims at layingtheoretical foundations of the topic. This part firstly give an outline of the definitionand emphasize the features through comparing concepts of subletting, leaseassignment and tenant right assignment. Secondly, according to different standards,house-subletting can be divided into four categories, which are named agreed andunauthorized subletting, on time and ahead of time subletting, wholly and partlysubletting and single and multiple subletting. The categories foreshadow thefollowing discussion of protecting subtenants’ interests in different situations. Then,this paper analyses the rights and obligations between the lessors, the lessees and thesubtenant. Finally, this paper discusses the value on protecting the subtenants’interests from three sides, the value of the justice, the social order and the security.The second part is to reveal the topic by deciphering the current laws that aboutprotecting the subtenants’ interests. Based on current laws, two aspects have beendiscussed-agreed house-subletting and unauthorized house-subletting. In thesituation of agreed house-sublettings, firstly this section lists the statutory rules aboutsubletting in current laws and point out the insufficiencies of current rules inprotecting the rights and interests of the subtenants if lessors and lessees are willing toterminate the contract through negotiations or terminate the irregular contract; secondly, it states the regulations of the lessees’ prior purchase rights in the houseselling and buying, and points out the blank of current laws in the rights of subtenant;thirdly, it states that the changes of the houses’ proprietary rights do not break thelease of house, introduce the argument that, in academic circles, whether these rightssuit the house-subletting or not, and point out the lack of legal provisions in disputingthe rights in judicial practice. In the situation of unauthorized house-sublettings, thispart analyses the legal consequences and the insufficiencies of current laws. There areno clear provisions in current laws about the validity of house-subletting contracts,which leads an argument in academic circles. In practice, different methods are usedto solve this kind of disputation, which is obviously harmful to the subtenants’interests.The third part states the improvement of protecting regulations in subtenants’interests, and, at the same time, it is the starting point and end-result of this paper.Firstly, the rights of lessors and lessees’ terminating contracts should be limitedthrough improving the standard of judicial practice and the law. Without subtenants’agreements, conventions of terminating the house-leasing contracts are illegal. Thispart also mentions that it is necessary to establish the subtenants’ rights of objection,and states the theoretical basis of this right and the exercising patterns. Secondly, thelaw should make it clear that the subtenants have the prior purchase rights when thelessors selling their house. It explains the theoretical basis of the subtenants’ priorpurchase rights through analyzing the lessees’ rights. The laws should make the orderof the subtenants’ prior purchasing rights clear. However, based on the commonprinciple that the subtenants’ prior purchasing rights should be in front of the lessees’,the order can be changed in different situations of house-subletting. In the situation ofmultiple sublettings, the former lessees’ rights should be in front of the latter lessees’;in the situation of partly sublettings, the lessees and the subtenants are in the sameorder. At the same time, the laws should make it clear that the lessors have theobligations to inform the lessees and the subtenants when they selling the house.Thirdly, when the houses’ proprietary rights changed, house-sublettings remain thesame. When the assignees of houses’ proprietary rights are neither the lessees nor thesubtenants, the house-subletting is not eliminated. But it is an exception to applicationif the assignees are lessees or subtenants. Lastly, when the lessees sublet the housewithout authorization, the effectiveness of the contracts should be admitted.. This partstates the validity of unauthorized subletting contract from the aspects of foreign laws and the principles of Contract Laws. However, the exceeding part should be invalid ifthe duration of unauthorized subletting contract is longer than the leasing contract.