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I lived 2 years in a "hutong" (old residential area) in Beijing. Rented an apartment via a middle man that could only get those apartments. After signing the lease, a friend warned me this middle man will certainly find every excuses to not give back the deposit (many stories about it in the foreigners circle).

The week I was leaving, she didn't want to give me the deposit .I warned her I'll public shame her if she didn't gave me back the money, and use "internet magic" to collect other poeople stories so it will stop people renting from her. Nothing happened until 3 months later she sent me a wechat transfer. I've closed the website. But then learned again she was keep doing the same thing with an other business name. I've reopened the website with adding her new business name. She didn't contacted me yet.

She get away since foreigners just don't want to to deal with that when they are about to leave the country or deal with that.

You can Google/Baidu/Bing "courtyard007" or "homeudream"



The usual traditional farewell as a foreigner is to not pay the last rents and she uses up your deposit for that.


In China, you usually pay the rent for the next 3 months so it's tricky to do




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