Ryan Fedoruk, a 40-year-old former part-time English teacher, may have found his true calling in Shanghai. From the beginning of 2011 until the end, he rented close to 30 apartments, most of them concurrently, and sublet them to more than 100 fellow foreigners. On Christmas Eve, he packed his things and disappeared, allegedly owing approximately 300,000 RMB to tenants alone and causing one eviction after another.
Second-hand Landlord
Fedoruk began subletting apartments in Shanghai in early 2011. He would post ads online, particularly SmartShanghai.com using multiple accounts, and describe himself as the landlord. He would also refer to himself as the landlord in his contracts with tenants.
He rented one apartment after another, and his so-called business gained steam in the middle of the year when many newly-arrived university students, mostly from Europe, were looking for housing. At its peak, he was renting close to 30 apartments in Puxi and Pudong to more than 80 tenants at the same time.
Then the school semester started and business slowed. By mid-semester, the perpetually increasing number of tenants that he had relied on for cashflow had disappeared. He had trouble finding tenants for a couple apartments in the French Concession area and, compounding the problem, would give steep discounts to fill empty rooms in others. “For him it became nothing more than filling rooms,” wrote one tenant who worked part-time for Fedoruk. “It seemed like he was desperate.”
Over time, a rumor started going around: Ryan Fedoruk does not return deposits. In August, a prospective tenant had even written a lengthy email to warn others about renting from Fedoruk. According to her email, a realtor told her that “everyone knows Ryan. He is what we call a second-hand landlord (二房东). He rents and sublets, then he takes the money from the tenants but doesn’t pay the landlord. Always finds a way to run away.”
The email unfortunately did not circulate to many of Fedoruk’s tenants and he, according to those he abandoned, left Shanghai on December 24, 2011 without returning rent deposits and without paying rent to many of his landlords.
(Note: A “second-hand landlord” or 二房东 is someone who rents and sublets a property and is not necessarily a scammer, though the term carries a somewhat negative connotation.)
Pile of Debts
After being owed money for weeks and months, many people were losing faith in Fedoruk’s promises to pay back their deposits and sick of his excuses. He had even become lazy in creating excuses, allegedly making claims such as, “I’ll pay you back tomorrow. Tomorrow is looking prosperous,” or “I’ll pay you back Sunday. I have a winning lottery ticket.”
Daniel Kwan, a former tenant who had months ago helped Fedoruk set up his database of tenants and properties, claims to be owed deposit money and emailed other tenants asking if Fedoruk owed them as well. Replies were received and it quickly became clear that Fedoruk indeed did not return deposits to many of his tenants, especially in recent months.
Fedoruk would leave Shanghai the next day and not return, and the email would lead to a community effort to build a criminal case and find the alleged swindler.
On Christmas Day, Fedoruk became aware of the email and called Kwan from Zhuhai. “Everything is illegal! Everything is illegal! Everything is illegal!” he yelled and repeated several more times. “If you keep this up, I’m going to jail!” Kwan agreed and suggested that he pay back the people he owes.
Since then, Fedoruk has claimed to a number of his existing and former tenants that he was borrowing money against a house but refused to reveal any paperwork. “This is most likely impossible since Ryan does not make any reportable income,” wrote Albert T., one of Fedoruk’s former roommates. “He is unemployed, does not pay tax, and rents his homes illegally, which means he would probably fail the credit check.”
The day after Christmas, lawyer Eva Gao joined the effort and began collecting statements from those who rented or were renting from Fedoruk. Based on emails received by the time of this writing, she estimates that Fedoruk is alleged to owe tenants approximately 300,000 RMB, and the number is expected to grow.
Evictions
The confirmation that Fedoruk was not returning to Shanghai came when Albert, who had only recently moved into the same apartment as Fedoruk, stated that “All of his essential belonging are gone, including his personal LCD television. I honestly think Ryan is bailing out on all of us.” A week after that, Albert was evicted along with three other roommates. Fedoruk had breached the rental contract by subletting the apartment. “From my point of view, it seems as if Ryan had taken my money and then left Shanghai with all his belongings, knowing he would not come back.”
Accounts of Fedoruk cheating people who had not yet arrived in China also surfaced. “There are about six people that paid Ryan from abroad in advance to secure a spot in his place on Changyi Lu,” claimed on tenant on New Year’s Day. “These individuals will be out of money and a place to stay in Shanghai.” He was correct. On the same day that tenants of Fedoruk’s own apartment in Lujiazui was evicted, the six who had moved to Shanghai for not even a few days were given a day to vacate their apartment.
Not all evictions were obvious to even the tenants being evicted. In November, Cheong, who was overseas at the time and had already paid months of rent in advance, was informed by his roommates that Fedoruk was moving them to a different apartment “because the landlord was an ass and didn’t want to fix the house. But the real reason was that Ryan didn’t pay the landlord rent. I got this info from the agent responsible for the apartment.”
Cheong has since moved elsewhere but never got his money back from Fedoruk, putting him in financial hardship. “I had to borrow money in order to get the new room I am actually staying at. I worked my ass off to get money and Ryan would just hold on to the money. When he had the money, he just blew it off at fancy western restaurants or bars. That really pissed me off.”
Even some who were not facing eviction (yet) from the true landlords recalled being threatened by Fedoruk himself. One tenant in an all-girls apartment wrote, “Some days, Ryan is nice with us, but sometimes he’s really scary and threatens to kick us out when it comes to the rent or to the internet issues. All of that because we refused to pay the rent before the date stipulated in the contract.”
These are just some of the stories of evictions that have been received. Considering that more than a dozen apartments have allegedly been abandoned by Fedoruk when he left Shanghai and cut off contact, we expect to hear more in the coming days and weeks.
To Be Continued…
In Part 2, the law will be discussed and more information regarding the case will be revealed. You may contact Eva Gao at eva@evaslaw.com and Daniel Kwan, who contributed to this article, at daniel@dkwan.com.
28 Responses to The Runaway Landlord, Part 1
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Eva Gao
I’m Eva, a Chinese lawyer based in Shanghai, and Eva’s Law is where you’ll get my perspective on all things related to legalities in China. I aim to keep it light and interesting so if you prefer monotonic lawyer-speak, visit my professional site instead. For the rest of you, stick around and learn some interesting stuff about Chinese law! 
Great article. Help the poor foreigners…
[...] cette histoire en detail, voici le lien vers le blog de l'avocate Chinoise en charge du dossier : http://evaslaw.com/articles/the-runa…ndlord-part-1/ Et ceux qui ont un VPN et souhaitent partager leurs temoignages et suivre l'affaire au jour le [...]
Ryan scammed a HUGE number of foreigners in Zhuhai too.
He turned up in Zhuhai randomly one day and paid a lot of people back (presumably with Shanghai $$$) and then disappeared again.
Bad bad man.
He used to have a gay bar in Zhuhai.
I believe he bolted owing a lot of money.
We want police to take care of it…Daniel and I are going to print out all relevant evidences that gathered so far and then hopefully have a case registered with police. Jee, I was supposed to be a civil law practitioner. Who would imagine I would handle this kind case?! but this kind case is something I am gonna tell my grandkids someday when I am old.
Good article Daniel & Eva. Hopefully everyone will get their money back. However, be careful as you may be crossing the line in defamation and damaging his personal reputation. He can counter sue you for that. Just advice from an experienced Chinese lawyer. Alex
Thanks for your concern. As a matter of fact, I paid enough attention to that, as well as victims’ privacy. Daniel covers the facts, I cover its legality.
After Shanghai Daily wrote a report about the case and have it published today, more victims who read it started to contact us and based on those emails, I honestly don’t think the man cared about his reputation at all. I also don’t have much faith that we will be able to help people get their money back, as the man practiced this kind tricks in another city years ago and got away with it…Hopefully the police will looking into the case soon.
There will be a new article on tomorrow’s newspaper, and we just newly updated the number of the victims and amounts of money involved.
Did your guys call the police? My bf is one of those poor people,too. I’m going to call the police next week if you guys haven’t yet. Really nice of you guys for doing so,the “laowai”s should start to be careful when dealing with other “laowai”s.
Many have tried, on one succeeded. I reckon it could be lack of evidences – from police’s standpoint of view. That’s why we rally up more victims to lodge their complaints so the authorities would realize its not just a civil wrong, its criminal. A serious crime is harming our community.
Heard it is a must to have a real estate broker invovled when renting a housing in China in order to be safe and also make u see the certificate of the house ownership when signing the contract.
建议马上到公安局外外管所举报他，这个人在珠海也做过同样的事
Hey Michael, that’s exactly what we are doing now…此案已经涉刑。
他在珠海夜有过类似同样的事情，
有可能已经跑到香港了或者泰国，这是他喜欢去得地方
Zhuhai was not the same. He borrowed money from many, for the fake claims of cancer treatment for himself and his girlfriend, both of which were clearly untrue and she was not involved.
Borrowed money to sort the money problems his bar had – all induced by his love of drink and hookers.
I’m surprised there’s been no mention of the passport and illegal visas he arranged for many – but not got their passport back and those who were involved are also here illegally.
asked my police friend,said that actually the police wouldnt take it serious and wouldnt even do anything. His advice is to go to the court which also might not be helpful, or ask for the consulate for help, as there are so many foreigners being cheated. Gathering together and go to the consulate.
Daniel reported to Canadian Consulate at the very beginning, the below is their reply:
“Thank you for your message. We regret for what happened to you and other people. Given the Consulate cannot intervene in private legal matters, we encourage you to seek assistance from a lawyer. “
yeah,guess laowais can do whatever they want in China. There’s no Chinese law for them,there’s no foreign law for them. JUST GO AHEAD.
Think about it: On the other hand, it means they don’t get enough protection by local laws. But, let’s hope I was wrong in this case.
在想我们是否能够通过打电话给电视节目 比如新闻综合 帮女郎这类来增加媒体的关注 从而给到相关部门压力呢？
Ryan is a scamster,everyone knows that.What makes me laugh a bit though is how so many of these so called teachers running around PRC are here and are teaching with fake documents,from Visas to Uni certificates to TEFL certs,are they not also scamming the system?Just ask Ryan,he helped many of them get their documents for PRC.
I am in no position to make comment over this. It’s police’s job to investigate further (if only they think its necessary – from their point of view).
Thank you for the information you provided.
[...] Eva Gao, has written a lengthy account of the incident detailing Fedoruk’s modus operandi. Here’s a [...]
Where are the lawyers when we are dealing with landlords (first OR second degree ;-) in China overall? I am more worried about the lack of legislation, regulation and prosecution in protection of tenants in China in general, with the position of the landlords favored in standard contracts and their omnipotence to act at will and arbitrariness a given. Renting out is a popular income source without responsibilites or consequences attached…and the deposit is ALWAYS a welcome bonus. Even though media and information focus is on Chinese homeowners and their “plight”, still a big market of renters remains…but not enough to bring about a necessary change? Ms. Gao, do you see any improvements on Chinese grounds in that respect anytime soon?
我也是受害者这一，我想知道，在处理这件事情上我能做些什么？？？如果我个人去报警的话，要怎么报。能给点意见吗？
你好，我们正在录笔录。请发邮件至eva@evaslaw.com
Nothing more about this guy or what?It seems like he has got away with his scam again,interesting.The search for him started off good,but it seems to be a thing of the past now.I guess he will start back up somewhere else since nothing came of his Shanghai scam the same way nothing happened with his Harbin or Zhuhai scams.Scot free again.I guess crime does pay.
I went to meet with the police last Thursday upon request, assisting in verifying some paper work. I was informed there soon will be some announcement to be made after they done their preliminary investigation. They have a deadline to catch now.
Many have expressed their concerns that he will do the same or similar things in other places if he wouldn’t be charged this time. I was being told he has been under investigation and all his further activities in China will be monitored – at least that’s how the Shanghai police told me. Furthermore, even if he will not be charged this time, the case is on record that’s for sure.
Please kindly understand I will not comment on the case in public anymore, not until the police announced the results of their preliminary investigation.