IN need of cash flow, a real estate agent rented affordable housing and then sublet it to tenants in order to obtain large amounts of capital. However, faced with a heavy deficit, he absconded with the tenants’ money, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

Qiaoxiangcun is a large government-subsidized housing estate supplying affordable housing in Shenzhen. Although the estate was put into use at the end of 2011, it is not yet available for rent publicly. The housing estate is alluring to tenants due to the beautiful neighborhood, convenient public transport and quality educational resources in the vicinity.

In June 2018, a man surnamed Jiang wanted to rent an apartment in the housing estate as his child had transferred to a nearby school. Through the online real estate agency qfang.com, Jiang was put in contact with a real estate agent surnamed Chen.

Chen claimed that he was the universal agent for several apartment owners in Qiaoxiangcun. Although Jiang knew that the housing estate was not available for rent publicly, he decided to rent an apartment for his child through Chen.

Chen asked Jiang to sign a one-year lease contract. As the rent for a year and the brokerage fees totaled more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,896), Jiang requested the money be transferred directly to the homeowner.

Chen provided a bank account that he claimed was the homeowner’s. A few days later, Jiang moved in and received the keys, access cards and parking lot cards. Jiang’s colleague surnamed Qian also moved into the housing estate last November through Chen.

Qian paid Chen a lump sum of 155,000 yuan, which included a year’s rent, two months’ deposit and brokerage fees.

However, Qian found that the utility fees for her apartment were in arrears after living there for a month. She said she had already paid Chen the utility fees, and he was supposed to transfer the money to the landlord.

On Jan. 7, Qian’s landlord came to her and said Chen hadn’t paid the rent on time. The landlord asked Qian to pay the rent and then move out.

Jiang’s landlord surnamed Zhou also came to him. According to Zhou, Chen had been renting the apartment at a monthly price of 10,000 yuan since mid-May. However, she had not received any rent since last December.

After the case came to light, the deceived tenants received a letter of apology from Chen. In the letter, Chen admitted to cheating the homeowners and tenants to improve his cash flow, and explained that he could not pay the rent because of his serious deficit.

According to Chen, he was about 560,000 yuan overdrawn on the 11 apartments that he was renting. Chen is being investigated on suspicion of fraud.

(Zhang Yu)