The Beijing headquarters of Danke Apartments were surrounded by dozens of angry landlords and tenants after the New York-listed agency withheld the rents amid growing rumors of capital chain rupture.

Over the last few days, the growing crowd has been protesting outside the building in bitter cold wind. The temperature in Beijing was as low as -4 C and affected landlords and tenants were asked to queue outdoors for quota tags if they wanted to meet with the company for negotiation, after the door was shut by police officers.

Danke Apartments, known in Chinese as Eggshell Apartments, was listed in New York this January. The leading online rental platform claimed to have more than 400,000 apartments across China and have served more than one million.

The cash-strapped company has failed to pay the rents collected from the tenants to the landlords after more and more apartments were deserted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An old lady surnamed Wang said only 50 quota tags were distributed at 6 a.m. each day, and the office hours were from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. She only managed to obtain a tag after two weeks.

Meanwhile, some tenants were driven out of their rented homes as a result.

Li, 22, said he came to Chengdu alone to earn a living and prepare for the retirements of his parents in Henan. Facing eviction by his landlord anytime soon, Lai said he dared not disclose the situation with his family. He planned to visit his parents during Lunar New Year but needed to change his plans now.

More cases could be found on Chinese social media platform Weibo. A netizen said she has paid a full year’s rent up front, but the landlady broke into her home last Saturday, removed all meters and water pipes and smashed the bathroom sink into pieces with a hammer. The landlady demanded her to move out in two days.

Danke Apartments claimed that they were not bankrupt and would not “run away” in a Weibo post on Nov. 16 without giving further response.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play