Can I get back my Flat Rental Deposit ?

[shaun]

Probably some of HelloNingbo readers know better than me the chinese rules about the "rent a flat deposit". I am interested in the next situation:
There is already signed one year rent a flat contract with a normal real estate company. Of course there is a deposit, and the tenant is paying the rent every 3 months. If the tenant has to move to another place for personal circumstances (for example after 6 months), can he recover the deposit?
I will appreciate any information about this subject. Thanks in advance!
Shaun.

[Real Estate]

In fact there is no global Chinese rule concerning flats rental so mainly it is according to the contract that has been signed between the Landlord and the Tenant.

If the contract specifies a 1 year rental and one of the 2 parts decides to stop it after 6 months that means BEFORE the end of the 1 year rent, then the contract is broken and one part will have to pay a damage fee. USUALLY this amount will be one month rental but you should check the contract.

The standard procedure is that a Tenant wishing to break the contract should inform the Landlord 1 month in advance before leaving.
When this month has expired, the Tenant will give the Landlord a damage fee, get back the refund of the rest rental and the deposit he put at the beginning of the contract.

But very often this deposit is 1 month rental so the landlord will just keep this deposit as the damage fee instead of giving it back and ask for it again.

There are some more specific cases when a Tenant has asked quite a few modifications in the place before renting so in this case the damage fee can be more than 1 month rental. It’s written or can even be manually added in the contract.
So the contract should definitely be checked carefully…

Hope this helps

[shaun]

Thank you very much for your professional answer.
Shaun.