Chapter 96: Aren't They Supposed to Be Less Stupid Than This? (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

No power again? Zhou Yi was a bit speechless. He didn't know what Property Management was thinking; in this day and age, they still dared to use power cuts to threaten homeowners?

A more important point was, knowing what kind of person he was, did they still dare to do this?

At this moment, Zhou Yi felt that Manager Xu's brain must have been kicked by a donkey...

Or perhaps he thought that Zhou Yi wouldn't even dare to call the power company.

He prepared to make a report call, but after thinking about it, Zhou Yi went straight out and downstairs; he planned to go to Property Management to ask about the situation first.

As usual, he had his recording pen, camera, and the like ready. Pinhole cameras had poor continuity, and besides, he, Zhou Yi, didn't need to hide or tuck things away. I just want to film why you people dare to do this!

Of course, Zhou Mouren probably didn't know that at this very moment, Xiao Xu, lying on her bed, picked up her phone and glanced at it. Heh, a whole night, he spent the whole night making phone calls?

In the Property Management Office, Ma Lili was chatting with a friend about yesterday's fire, and of course, mainly about that little security guard blocking the fire engine.

Even though they were all Property Management staff, they were a bit speechless about that security guard's behavior.

"What do you think he was thinking? Even if he had let the fire engine in, so what? So many people were watching. As a result, not only is his job gone now, but he also has to be fined by them..."

Hearing this, Ma Lili shook her head: "You're too young to say that. You haven't worked in this Property Management long enough. Our Property Management here is sometimes truly outrageous."

"So, if you want to work here for a long time, you have to use your brain..."

Just as she was speaking, Ma Lili saw Zhou Yi walk in from outside and hurriedly smiled: "Mr. Zhou is here, is there something the matter?"

"Ah, nothing much. Wasn't there a power outage at home last night? I called you and was told it was equipment maintenance. Then the power came back on, but it went out again this morning."

"I came to ask what the reason is. Could it be that the equipment just finished maintenance and needs to be maintained again?"

A power outage? Ma Lili flipped through the homeowner visit log. Oh, there really was such a matter.

"Mr. Zhou, please wait a moment. I'll call and ask. It should be that the maintenance from last night wasn't finished yet..."

"The line maintenance isn't finished... Alright then, I'll make a call and ask."

Immediately, Zhou Yi dialed Liu Nainai's number and put it on speakerphone.

"Hello, Little Zhou? Oh, my house? My house has had power the whole time. What's wrong? Is your house without power?"

"The power was out last night and this morning. It's nothing, it's nothing, you go ahead with your business."

Hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi looked at Ma Lili: "So why is it that only my house has a power outage during line maintenance?"

Ma Lili didn't quite know what to do. After thinking about it, she managed to say: "That should be a problem with the distribution box at your place? How about I ask about the situation?"

Zhou Yi shook his head and said: "Forget it. You probably don't know, I'd better ask the power company."

After speaking, Zhou Yi dialed the number starting with 9 on the back of his power card right in front of her.

Yuefu Residential Quarter still used the old-fashioned method where electricity, water, and natural gas were all entrusted to Property Management for collection, so payments were also made at Property Management rather than directly online.

The call was connected quickly.

"Yes, it's Yuefu Residential Quarter. Property Management said there was equipment maintenance, and the power has been cut twice from yesterday until now."

"Yes, only my house has a power outage; my neighbors are all fine."

After telling the power company's customer service the general situation, they also quickly said they would send someone to check the situation and would have someone inform him of the results later.

Hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi looked at the somewhat flustered Ma Lili and asked: "Is Manager Xue here now?"

"Ah, Manager Xue? It seems Manager Xue went to a meeting at this moment."

Seeing that Zhou Yi looked very suspicious, Ma Lili hurriedly explained: "You can go check the Manager's Office; Manager Xue is indeed not here today!"

"Oh, then forget it. It's fine, you all go ahead with your work."

After speaking, he turned and left. There was no need to make things difficult for these people who were just doing their jobs. To be serious, one needs to grasp the main contradiction.

Of course, Zhou Yi didn't know that Manager Xue was still at Property Management at this moment, just not in the Manager's Office.

"Old Xu, I'm asking you what you're thinking. Putting his car on the blacklist, cutting his power, and turning down his water pressure—anyone can see you're targeting him. It's not like he didn't pay his Property Fee, why bother?" Manager Xue said.

Zhou Yi was right before; for someone like Manager Xue, you couldn't say he was evil. He was the type who, as long as you paid the money—whether it was the Property Fee or the Elevator Card fee—everything else didn't matter.

And basically, he could let Employees go out to take the heat. If it really didn't work, he would step out himself, smiling and bowing whenever possible.

He would muddle through; anyway, as long as he dragged it out until the angry homeowners' spirits were worn down, then it would be fine.

Directly messing with people and confronting them—Manager Xue wouldn't do such a thing. He felt these methods were too low-class, and truly unnecessary.

To use a classic saying, Manager Xue believed that whether or not the Property Fee was paid was the main contradiction, and everything else was a secondary contradiction not worth mentioning.

"Besides, didn't I tell you last time? That Zhou Yi has money and is a bit dim-witted. If you mess with him, he's the type who can really fight you to the end. What are you trying to gain?"

Manager Xu hesitated for a moment before saying: "I just can't stand his attitude. And Old Xue, don't worry about anything. This isn't last time. What can he do this time? Report us?"

"We've already been fined to the maximum and are in the middle of rectification. What can he report? Don't even mention a Lawsuit; what kind of Breach of Contract would he use?"

"Whether the hygiene wasn't done well or the service didn't keep up—you saw that verdict a few days ago. These things are all hollow; it's not easy to handle even if he files a Lawsuit!"

Hearing this, Manager Xue sighed; he knew what the other party was talking about.

A while ago, in another Small Residential District in Jingzhou City, the property service was truly too poor. Many homeowners had their homes burglarized, the security system was as if it weren't turned on, public facilities were poorly maintained, and door plates were falling off in large areas.

The number of cleaning staff was pitifully small and didn't match the Small Residential District at all, among various other problems.

The homeowners of that Small Residential District even hired a third-party property service evaluation company to conduct an assessment, and five out of ten items were unqualified.

Not to mention the money for the Lawsuit, the assessment fee alone was a significant expense.

Many people didn't know about this Lawsuit, but it had a significant impact within their Property Management Company circles.

The verdict showed that the homeowners' demands, such as requiring the Property Management Company to improve service quality and bear the Breach of Contract Liability caused by the service quality not meeting requirements, were all rejected.

The reason was also very simple: how service quality is considered qualified does not have a particularly fixed standard.

The Service Contract also wouldn't specify in detail what level a certain service needed to reach.

So, unsurprisingly, they lost the case.

Therefore, Manager Xu wasn't worried at all now.

However, he also said: "Just for a few days, let him know that when living in the Small Residential District, don't always go against Property Management. We even gave him an Elevator Card for free; we're being so polite to him, what else does he want!"

Manager Xue was helpless. If this guy hadn't been sent down by the head office, he would have started yelling long ago.

With nothing better to do, he looked for trouble every day. Old Xue felt that sooner or later, he would meet his downfall because of these people.

The phone rang. He picked it up and spoke a few words, then Manager Xue said, "Don't cut off the power. The power company has already come to investigate. What era do you think this is, still cutting off power!"

…………

Bang, bang, bang!

"Oh, little Zhou, why are you here? Didn't you say the power was out at home?" Liu Nainai opened the door, looked at Zhou Yi, and smiled. "Why did you bring things again? You child, you just know how to waste money."

Zhou Yi put down the things he was carrying and smiled. "The power came back on after I called the power company. It's fine. By the way, Liu Nainai, let me ask you a question. When did you all usually pay the Property Fee in the past?"

"Property Fee?" Liu Nainai thought for a moment and said, "The Small Residential District collects fees annually. Basically, everyone goes to pay when the time is almost up."

"Then, have they ever given you an invoice over these years?"

This was the method Zhou Yi had asked Lawyer Fang about just after returning home.

According to Lawyer Fang, he hadn't originally thought of this, because any legitimate Company would know the importance of issuing invoices.

After all, it's not like those small restaurants on the street. Those small restaurants mostly pay a fixed tax amount and might have some invoices, but sometimes if they tell you they've run out of invoices for the month, that really might be the case.

But the Property Management is different. For a Small Residential District like Yuefu Residential Quarter, calculated by area, each household's Property Fee is between 1,800-900 to over 2,000 a year, plus those with cars have to pay parking management fees.

So, truthfully speaking, the fees collected every year are quite substantial, and an invoice must be issued.

Therefore, Lawyer Fang just told Zhou Yi to ask first. If the other party really didn't issue an invoice, then it would be fun...

"Invoices..." Liu Nainai thought for a moment and said, "Little Zhou, wait a moment. I remember I kept all those little slips of paper the Property Management gave every year. I'll take them out for you to see."

This is also a habit of many elderly people. Even those who are illiterate don't know what is useful and what is not, so they store all these scraps of paper neatly.

Liu Nainai was just like that. She took out an old iron box, opened it, and inside was a stack of paper slips, carefully clipped together, very neat.

"Little Zhou, look, these are all from the Property Management."

Zhou Yi took them and looked. There were six, but they were all receipts, not invoices.

"Liu Nainai, do you remember if anyone in our Small Residential District has ever argued with the Property Management about the issue of issuing invoices?" Zhou Yi asked again.

Liu Nainai thought carefully for a long time before saying, "I remember now. It seems that three years ago, a neighbor mentioned in the group chat that the Property Management kept refusing to issue invoices. They talked about it for a while, but I don't know what happened after that."

"Look at the group chat. They all have their building numbers before their names. It should be Grandpa Qi from Building 8."

After clarifying the situation from Liu Nainai, Zhou Yi went straight to Building 8 and soon found Grandpa Qi's home.

He knocked on the door.

Grandpa Qi inside was listening to opera with rapt attention; this was his only hobby. Hearing the knock, he got up to open it, and upon seeing him, he was immediately delighted: "Oh, young man, how did you find my house?"

Zhou Yi was also a bit surprised when he saw him. This Grandpa Qi was the old man who stood up yesterday to accuse Xia Shuqin.

"It's you, sir. That's quite a coincidence. Grandpa Qi, I have something to ask you."

"If you have something to say, come in and sit down. I'll go wash some fruit for you."

These elderly people are all so enthusiastic, and sometimes so enthusiastic that you can't handle it.

Zhou Yi hurriedly said, "Don't bother, Grandpa Qi. Let me ask you something first."

Then Zhou Yi asked about the fact that the Property Management had never issued invoices before. Grandpa Qi smiled: "Oh, that matter. I did indeed mention it before."

"I was an accountant before I retired. That time I paid the Property Fee, out of old habit, I just asked them to issue an invoice. They said it would take two days to issue it. I thought that was normal, so I went home."

"Since I was retired, I had some free time. After two days, I went to ask, and they said it still hadn't been issued and I needed to wait a few more days. I'm a bit of a stickler, so I thought, I want to see if you'll actually give it to me."

"In the end, guess how long it took? A full three months. I suppose I made it too troublesome for them, and they finally gave me an invoice. I just mentioned it in the group chat, but I doubt many people would be like me."

Zhou Yi nodded, a smile appearing on his face. This Property Management was definitely guilty of Tax Evasion.

It's not that they never issue invoices at all. If they really encounter someone who is a stickler, like an old accountant like Grandpa Qi, they will definitely issue one in the end.

But it is very difficult for the average person to have the idea of urging the other party to issue an invoice time and time again.

After chatting with Grandpa Qi for a few more words, Zhou Yi said goodbye and immediately dialed Lawyer Fang's phone.

"What? You said your Small Residential District's Property Management rarely issues invoices these years? What were they thinking..."

"Hey, Lawyer Fang, it's been several years. Why hasn't the Tax Department investigated?" Zhou Yi asked curiously.

"Little Zhou, really, go read some more books. Our taxes are all self-declared, and you are responsible for yourself. With so many companies, the Tax Department can't investigate one by one. Basically, they are all random checks."

"Stop talking, just go report them. But you'd better go pay this year's Property Fee too. Since they are used to it, they definitely won't give you an invoice, and then go report them."

"Oh, by the way, Little Zhou, reporting is reporting, but look at our lawsuit..."

Zhou Yi: "..." So Lawyer Fang is just unrestrained and loves to litigate?

"Reporting is reporting, and the lawsuit is the lawsuit. Both can be done!"

Since he had decided, he would just go pay the Property Fee. Come to think of it, it was almost time to pay.

After paying the Property Fee, sure enough, the staff inside only gave a receipt, but no invoice.

Zhou Yi didn't ask. There was no need to ask. Issuing an invoice is something you must take the initiative to do. Why should I ask!

Without a word, Zhou Yi left the Property Management and headed straight to the basement, off to the Guangming District Tax Bureau!

The system didn't move, but it didn't matter. By now, Zhou Yi's thinking had long since changed.

The Serious System gives tasks and rewards, but if the system doesn't give tasks, he will be serious on his own!

He is being serious now, not for the system, but for the breath in his heart!

First update. Soothing my throat in the morning, then the routine request for monthly tickets. The rest will be posted together, and it will quench your thirst then. Also, let me tell everyone, the suggestions you gave yesterday were very good. Really, the author researches many things himself, which is certainly not as clear as people in the industry, so any suggestions that do not affect the main plot can be raised, and the author will make revisions. Also, the case about the Property Management in the story is real; I found it before.

(End of chapter)