A survey on household decoration pitfalls with constant tricks: How can consumers not be afraid of home decoration? Step on the Pit | Decoration | Routine

Investigation motivation

Recently, Mr. Yan, who lives in Nanjing, Jiangsu, called and claimed that he had stepped into a "decoration pit" - on July 4th, he found a local decoration company through a national decoration platform and signed a decoration contract; The contract clearly stated the half package price and promised no price increase. However, after starting work, the foreman proposed many additional items, which were rejected. The foreman immediately stopped work and dismantled the password box on the door without authorization. Mr. Yan complained to the decoration platform, but the platform completely leaned towards the decoration company.

House decoration is a complex project for families, involving multiple links, which is time-consuming, laborious, and laborious. The "decoration pit" has caused many homeowners unbearable suffering. What are the presentation forms of "decoration pits"? How to avoid "decoration pitfalls" and standardize the decoration industry? With these questions in mind, the reporter conducted in-depth interviews.

"The most regrettable thing from the beginning of renovation to now is finding a designer."

Ms. Xu, a resident of Dongli District, Tianjin, who just bought a house this year, heard that decoration is prone to pitfalls, so she asked a designer to help her avoid them. However, she didn't expect that "finding him is the beginning of pitfalls" - under the designer's "good words" and persuasion, her decoration budget increased from less than 100000 yuan to 150000 yuan, but the decoration completed according to the design plan had many problems.

Ms. Xu's experience is not an exception. It has become a consensus among many home decoration consumers that decoration companies use information gaps to trap consumers who do not understand the situation. There is no decoration that does not "step on the trap", only the distinction between "big pit" and "small pit".

In July 2022, a third-party organization conducted a survey of 2000 home decoration consumers and found that over 60% of them had encountered decoration material problems, and one-third of home decoration consumers had spent more than 30000 yuan due to unplanned additional items.

Several interviewed experts recently told reporters from the Legal Daily that solving the marketing chaos in the home decoration industry is not an overnight task. Industry associations, regulatory authorities, and home decoration enterprises need to work together to promote the resolution of the problem. Regulatory authorities need to accelerate the improvement of institutional norms in the home decoration industry, increase regulatory efforts, such as listing home decoration companies with high volume of payments and complaints on the integrity "blacklist", increase penalties for unscrupulous enterprises, and create a fair and healthy competitive environment for the home decoration industry. Home decoration enterprises should consciously abide by relevant laws and regulations in the industry and operate with integrity.

The decoration designer is not professional

Verbal commitment not included in the contract

Multiple respondents stated that decoration design is the earliest "pit".

After Ms. Xu bought a house in Dongli District, Tianjin, the most important thing in front of her was decoration. Due to her lack of understanding in decoration, she decided to find a designer to help her design a plan, and then requested the decoration company to follow the design plan for construction, thinking that this would avoid pitfalls.

Ms. Xu found a decoration company online that claims to have a professional designer team of over 30 people. After explaining her design intentions to the company, they recommended a designer to her who is said to have over a decade of design experience. After communication and exchange, the designer provided a detailed decoration plan, such as modifying the foyer to expand the space and decorating the living room to make it more aesthetically pleasing. But at the end of the plan, Ms. Xu's decoration budget increased from less than 100000 yuan to 150000 yuan.

A few months later, Ms. Xu's home renovation was completed, but she was not satisfied.

Ms. Xu told the Legal Daily that she also consulted someone with experience in decoration. After on-site inspection, the other party told her that the decoration design lacked details and deliberately omitted items. Taking the suspended ceiling light trough as an example, in order to lower the quotation and prompt consumers to sign the contract, the designer may promise to use artistic light troughs, but only write the light troughs on the drawings. In actual decoration, ordinary light troughs are used, and the final effect is greatly discounted.

"Designers are like chicken ribs." Mr. Zhang, a resident of Xicheng District in Beijing who wants to choose semi package decoration, also "stepped on a pit" in the design stage before decoration.

Mr. Zhang explained, "At first, I chose half package because I thought building materials could be purchased, and I could save a lot of money by packaging materials myself. However, when the designer came up with a design plan, they did not provide a clear explanation of the materials used. For example, wooden flooring has dozens of options in terms of material, style, brand, color, and size. Without any clue, I consulted the designer, and they gave me random guidance. As a result, I believed he bought many problematic products, which were questioned by the subsequent decoration team."

"Not only that, before paying the money, they would act as brothers and help me with the design; after paying, they wouldn't answer the phone or reply to messages. Don't just help me 'avoid pitfalls', it's okay not to blindly command. In his opinion, if you submit the design drawings, everything will be fine. This really corresponds to a sentence I saw online before:' If you're poor, don't look for a designer. '" Mr. Zhang said that he didn't expect a designer to be so good at his design level and only wanted to reduce errors in decoration, but the result was even more frustrating.

In addition, in Mr. Zhang's view, there is a whole house custom designer for installing cabinets, a tile and floor shop will provide you with layout and drawings, a heating shop will provide you with a plan, and there will be a designer for everything you buy. However, the designer who pays for the design may not necessarily understand these things.

In addition to decoration design, contract loopholes are also a "pit".

During the investigation, the reporter found that drilling contract loopholes has become one of the profit-making methods for some decoration companies, such as ambiguous contracts and not specifying the specific model of building materials.

"At the time of handover, I realized that the contract clearly stipulated the use of a certain building material brand, but in reality, all the products used were mid to low-end products of this brand." Mr. Ma, a resident of Baodi District, Tianjin, said that when he signed the contract with the decoration company, the company verbally promised to use high-end packages, including a series of high-end products from a certain brand, such as flooring, wall paint, tiles, etc.

"But later on, I found out that the originally promised floor price of 538 yuan per square meter was replaced with a floor price of 239 yuan per square meter. The price difference for the floor alone was over 40000 yuan, not including other materials." Mr. Ma negotiated with the decoration company, but the other party presented a contract, stating that the contract only indicated the brand and did not specify which specific product, and the company's actions did not violate the contract.

Through sorting out decoration dispute cases, the reporter found that there are many "domineering clauses" in the current home decoration field contracts: the standard of liquidated damages is too low, and when the construction party fails to complete the decoration project on time, they only need to pay a small amount of liquidated damages to consumers; If a consumer unilaterally terminates the contract due to force majeure, the prepayment has been paid and the operator will not refund it.

The decoration platform has become a decoration

Execution price exceeds budget

Decoration is not guaranteed to be completed on schedule with a contract in place.

"The renovation project has been delayed for several days, and the renovation company has actually come to me for the final payment." Chongqing resident Yin Chuan recently told reporters that he had previously signed a renovation contract with a renovation company, which agreed on a 90 day construction period instead of 90 working days. He repeatedly confirmed this issue with the construction party, and the other party said, "Your house is not big, and it can be basically completed in 60 days. The 90 day report was made by us considering factors such as holidays that may not be possible for construction. It must be no problem, rest assured.".

In May of this year, with more than 30 days left until the agreed completion date in the contract, Yin Chuan discovered that half of the decoration project was still unfinished.

"I had urged them before, but they would stop at any moment. In May, I asked them if they could finish in June, and they said 'yes'. At the end of June, I asked them if they could finish on time, but they still said' yes'. In fact, they have not finished yet." Yin Chuan said that the decoration problem is not just about project delays. After the decoration, the size of a new wall in the room was wrong, which led to me having to buy a new bed and door. Issues such as poor slope of the toilet floor and uneven walls can be seen everywhere.

The decoration companies found through the platform will also be pitted.

Due to water leakage in the bathroom, Ms. Shen from Jing'an District, Shanghai, made an appointment with a technician on a home repair platform on June 5th this year to conduct on-site inspections. The technician informed her that the bathroom needs to be re waterproofed and the toilet needs to be relocated.

"On the second day of the survey, the platform sent a quotation and promised that if there were any problems after the renovation, the after-sales service would be responsible and the owner would not pay any more fees. So, I placed an order on the platform and paid a deposit. On June 19th, the bathroom renovation was completed, and before the tap water valve test was conducted, the platform required the final payment to be paid. On June 20th, the renovation master requested to stop the water supply for one day to let the glass glue dry completely, and the bathroom could be used normally the next day. To ensure safety, I started using water after two days. However, when I opened the water valve, the tile joints in the bathroom began to leak water. After contacting the renovation master, he said it was not his problem, but our home's water pipe problem." Ms. Li was still very angry when recalling the incident to the reporter.

In Ms. Shen's opinion, before the renovation, her water pipes were in normal use; After the renovation, the water pipe leaked, either it was damaged during the renovation process or it was not properly waterproof. Moreover, the toilet is not fixed properly, often blocking and preventing water from flowing down, and the living room floor is bulging due to overflow in the bathroom.

What infuriated Ms. Shen even more was that before the renovation, the platform promised to be responsible for after-sales service. It has been a month since the full payment was made, and when calling the platform's customer service hotline, it is always "feedback waiting for notification", without any substantial processing results.

The reporter also noticed that there is a common phenomenon in the home decoration market: even if a home decoration contract is signed and a quotation is stated, the final execution price often exceeds the budget.

Regarding this, Luan Yan, a senior partner of Beijing Kangda Law Firm, believes that the decoration company should fulfill the contract signed by both parties. Any behavior that violates the contract and increases the price constitutes a breach of contract and should bear the liability for breach of contract.

"The modification of the contract agreement must be negotiated and agreed upon by the parties, or when there are legal reasons, one party may request the people's court to modify it, and the decoration company cannot unilaterally increase the price without any agreement or uncertain reasons. Even if there are market fluctuations or raw material price increases during the decoration process, it is still a normal commercial risk and should be borne by the decoration company. The decoration company's claim for an increase in transaction price based on this has no legal basis," said Luan Yan.

Yang Qinfa, Director of the Real Estate Policy and Law Research Institute at East China University of Political Science and Law, told reporters that during the decoration project, consumers, as the contracting parties and the commissioning party of the decoration project, have the obligation to supervise and review. They should be present to supervise the delivery of decoration materials to the site and the subsequent decoration process, and conduct timely acceptance inspection after the completion of the decoration project. If no replacement of materials is found during the decoration process, and no timely evidence is provided after acceptance that the decoration materials will affect the normal delivery and use of commercial housing, it can only be deemed that the behavior of the decoration company is "unethical", but does not constitute a breach of contract at the legal level.

Yang Qinfa said that if a decoration company lowers the grade of decoration materials explicitly stipulated in the contract without consultation in order to obtain greater profit margins, or even causes quality problems due to the use of decoration materials that do not meet specifications, consumers who are the other party to the contract can, after fulfilling the relevant burden of proof, sue the decoration company for breach of contract liability, such as taking remedial measures or compensating for losses, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code.

A reporter's investigation found that many homeowners have stepped on "pitfalls" when choosing home decoration. In the eyes of many home decoration consumers, "there is no decoration that does not" step on pitfalls ", only" big pitfalls "and" small pitfalls "..."

According to statistics from the China Consumers Association, in 2022, the association received a total of 22800 complaints related to housing decoration and property services, ranking eighth among all service complaints. Among them, most of the complaints are aimed at some decoration companies in the industry, such as lack of qualifications, contract breach, and quality defects in housing decoration.

Revise relevant departmental regulations

Clarify the rights and obligations of all parties

Why has the home decoration market been in constant chaos for a long time? Yang Qinfa believes that this is caused by various reasons.

"On the one hand, there is a lack of strong regulatory bodies in the home decoration industry. Currently, the supervision of the decoration industry is mainly carried out by the owners themselves, and whoever decorates is responsible. Large home decoration enterprises can hire third parties for supervision, while small and medium-sized home decoration enterprises need to be supervised by the owners in order to save costs. On the other hand, there is a lack of industry management, such as decoration companies carrying out construction according to relevant national government regulations on their own, and there is no industry organization requiring decoration companies to exercise self-discipline." Yang Qinfa said.

In Yang Qinfa's view, decoration belongs to low-frequency consumption. For most consumers, they may have very little or even no exposure to home decoration consumption in their daily lives, and they may not have a good understanding of the relevant processes and projects. Therefore, if a decoration company engages in fraud in terms of decoration content, fee items, design schemes, payment methods, engineering acceptance, etc. during the contract signing process, ordinary consumers may find it difficult to detect the problems, which leaves some decoration companies with opportunities to "dig holes".

How can we prevent consumers from being anxious about home decoration?

In Yang Qinfa's view, solving the problem of marketing chaos in the home decoration industry is not something that can be solved overnight. Industry associations, regulatory departments, and home decoration enterprises need to work together to promote the resolution of the problem. On the one hand, regulatory authorities need to accelerate the improvement of relevant rules, increase regulatory efforts, and include home decoration companies that run away with payments and have a high number of complaints on the integrity "blacklist". They should also increase the punishment for unscrupulous enterprises and create a fair and healthy competitive environment for the home decoration industry; On the other hand, enterprises should consciously abide by laws and regulations and improve the professionalism of relevant contracts.

Luan Yan said that consumers should make clear agreements on quality issues at the beginning of the home decoration contract signing, and supervise the material model and style when materials and construction personnel enter the site. They should also actively fulfill their acceptance obligations at the end of the decoration, and attach importance to fixing and preserving evidence such as chat records and phone calls at all stages to prevent and resolve quality disputes during the decoration process; For breach of contract or fraudulent behavior by decoration companies, legal assistance should be sought in a timely manner.

"Consumer associations and relevant departments should also improve their supervision of the decoration market, such as establishing supervision agencies to supervise the entire decoration process, increasing administrative penalties for violations by decoration companies, etc. Consumers should also improve their own decoration knowledge and legal awareness to avoid decoration companies exploiting information gaps and loopholes in contracts," said Luan Yan.

It is worth noting that as early as early as 2002, the former Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development issued the "Management Measures for Residential Interior Decoration" to strengthen the management of residential interior decoration, ensure the quality and safety of decoration projects, and maintain public safety and interests. In addition, in terms of regulating the decoration industry, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development and the Ministry of Commerce have also issued a series of normative documents such as the "Quality Acceptance Specification for Residential Interior Decoration Engineering" and the "Home Industry Business Service Specification", which put forward clear requirements for details related to home decoration.

The interviewed experts believe that the above-mentioned Management Measures have been implemented for more than 20 years, and some provisions are no longer suitable for the current needs of social development.

In Luan Yan's view, the provisions on the legal responsibility of decorators or decoration enterprises in the Management Measures are not clear, nor do they involve the rights and obligations between decoration enterprises and owners.

Yang Qinfa believes that the "Management Measures", as departmental regulations, have binding force on the decoration industry. The reason why they have not been well implemented is not because of their low level, but mainly because the law enforcement departments have not implemented them well.

Experts call for the urgent revision and improvement of the "Management Measures" to curb illegal and irregular indoor decoration and renovation of urban houses, further clarify the regulatory functions of relevant departments, strengthen industry self-discipline, standardize the decoration industry, and clarify the responsibilities of all parties.

"To enhance the binding force on the decoration party, it is necessary to further clarify the administrative responsibilities of all parties involved in the decoration, reasonably determine the compensation amount, and reduce the occurrence of illegal breach of contract. Local regulations or rules should also be formulated to regulate the decoration industry, clarify the regulatory obligations and responsibilities of regulatory agencies towards the decoration party, and strengthen the protection function of consumer organizations' rights and interests to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers." Luan Yan said.

"If conditions permit, it is natural to modify and improve the 'Management Measures'. However, to solve the chaos in the decoration market, it is still necessary to fully utilize existing laws, especially the Consumer Rights Protection Law, Price Law, and Civil Code, and regulate the chaos in accordance with the law." Yang Qinfa believes.