Landlord Dispute in China: A Step-by-Step Playbook

The lease ends in two weeks and the landlord’s message arrives with photos: a scratched door frame, a stained curtain, the word “deposit.” A month’s rent is on the line. Whether any of it comes back usually comes down to five steps — and the order you take them in.

TL;DR — the 30-second version

Disputes here are won in writing, not in person. Keep everything on WeChat, quote your contract, and escalate only after two polite written requests. Repairs are the landlord’s job unless the contract says otherwise, and normal wear and tear is not damage. If nothing moves, a free call to 12345 or community mediation settles most fights before any lawyer gets involved.

The short answer

Most landlord problems in China come down to the contract, the chat record, and one escalation call. You rarely need a lawyer for a deposit fight, a dead air conditioner, or a mid-lease rent bump. You need a written trail and patience. A lawsuit is the finish line, not the starting block.

Step 1: Read the deposit clause before you reply

Your first reply should not start with “that scratch was already there.” Your first move is the contract. Standard Chinese leases run on a pattern called “yi ya fu san” — one month’s deposit, three months’ rent up front — and the deposit clause usually allows deductions for “damage” without defining it. That vagueness is the whole game. Here is what the clause rarely says but the law does: normal wear and tear is not your bill. The Civil Code, Article 710, is blunt — if you used the place as agreed, the wear from living in it is not damage you owe for. A scratched door frame after a year? Arguable. A door you actually broke? That one is on you.

Step 2: Turn every fight into a WeChat record

China’s courts accept chat records as evidence — the Supreme People’s Court locked this into its 2020 rules on civil-case evidence. So stop arguing on the phone and stop dropping by to “talk it out.” Send the message. Every request and every “I’ll check” should exist as text. A repair that stalls for weeks usually moves the day you send one photo, one date, one sentence: “Please arrange the repair this week.” A reply of “ok” is proof of notice.

Step 3: Who fixes what (the rule that surprises tenants)

Broken air conditioning in July? Flickering lights? The Civil Code, Article 712, makes repairs the landlord’s job unless the contract moves them onto you — and most standard contracts don’t. So: ask in writing. Wait about a week. Ask again. Two polite written requests is the magic number; after that, silence is a decision. What you should not do is hire a repairman and deduct the cost unless your contract explicitly allows it. That gray zone gets tenants into trouble.

Step 4: The escalation ladder (every rung is free)

12345 — every city’s government hotline. Call, explain, and they log a complaint with a tracking number, routed to the housing authority. English works in the big cities. It feels bureaucratic, and it also makes landlords suddenly responsive.

12315 — the consumer hotline; a better fit for agency-run apartments than a private landlord, but one more trail.

Community mediation — free, run through the neighborhood committee. A mediator calls both sides and talks. Not a court ruling, but it ends a surprising number of deposit fights.

Small claims court — the bar to file is low: your contract, the chat history, your passport. Working without a lawyer is the point of the fast lane, and just mentioning that you will file settles an uncomfortable number of negotiations.

Step 5: Breaking a lease early — and the deposit word that matters

Leaving before the term ends? Most standard leases want one month’s notice, and if you skip it, the landlord keeps the deposit — usually within their rights. So send written notice with your moving date and offer to help find the replacement tenant. Landlords who can re-rent fast are the easiest to reason with.

One word in the contract changes a lot. If it calls your money “ding jin” (an earnest deposit on the Chinese model), the Civil Code’s deposit rule (Article 587) doubles it when the landlord breaches — break the deal on their side, pay double back. If it is a plain “ya jin” (security deposit), no doubling. Check which word you signed for.

Quick answers

Q: Can my landlord keep the deposit for “damage”? A: Only for real repair costs — normal wear and tear does not count (Article 710). Ask for itemized receipts and compare them against the photos you took on move-in day.

Q: Are WeChat messages really evidence? A: Yes. The Supreme People’s Court’s 2020 evidence rules accept chat records, payment screenshots, and voice notes. Keep names, dates, and amounts in writing.

Q: The air conditioner died and the landlord won’t answer. Now what? A: Repairs are the landlord’s job under Article 712 unless your contract says otherwise. Send two written requests a week apart, then call 12345. Do not deduct a repair bill without a clause that allows it.

Q: They want to raise the rent mid-lease. Can they? A: Only if your contract says so. If it does not, a one-line refusal citing the lease is usually the end of it.

Sources: Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, Articles 587, 710, 712 (npc.gov.cn) · Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Evidence in Civil Procedures, effective 2020 (court.gov.cn).

Editorial review: EasternReset Team · Snapshot: 2026-09. Found an error? Tell us.