Job Discussion Forums

[askiptochina]

If a landlord doesn't pay 100% back, is there anything you can do or are you just screwed? I moved out before a 20th deadline. Today I went to give the key and get my security deposit back. In dollars, it's not much I am complaining about. However, I was surprised how things were being dealt with.

I just gave an even 1,000 RMB, so I thought the math would be pretty easy. Subtract a few days of electricity which came to 16RMB and then pay the water bills which I didn't pay any of for 6 months. Then, I waited and waited for like an hour while a worker at my school and the real estate agent did a bunch of math problems which I later found out had to do with heat in the apartment. In the end, they wanted me to pay half of the heating costs (which they said was 1,200).

My school said it is in the contract somewhere. So, I called the owner of the school, who is American and we knew something sounded strange. I didn't need heat from June-October. It seems like I would only need heat for a couple months.

They spent all this time calculating stuff just to come to the conclusion I should pay half? Was this just a show to make it look legit? Anyway, the total damage came to 550. If you consider 100 or so for water bills, it's probably not worth it it fight for $50.

However, I am curious if anyone has had experience similar to this and how they handled the situation.