Money and business / Chapter 15
Scope: money. When renting, the places money is most easily lost are the deposit and the agent. When buying, the expensive parts are the interest on the loan, and the things the seller knows that you do not. The items near the end of the section are about buying: which account the money should go into, when the earnest money and the purchase price can be asked back, and what to do if handover is late. Also how to stop a seller selling the same home twice, and how to talk the mortgage rate down. The last two items are about after you move in: the property manager must not cut water or power to collect fees, and for a new home that leaks, go to the developer for repairs within the warranty period.
How much the deposit is, when it is returned, and when it may be deducted must go into the contract before you sign. Deduction grounds not written in the contract cannot be used to withhold your deposit when you move out.
Landlords must not cut water or power, change locks, or come to the door with threats to force you to end the lease or move out — the regulations forbid it. If it happens, call the police first and keep the evidence. …
By rule, rent and deposits must not be collected or paid through an agent — pay the landlord directly. Every time the money passes through the agent, there is one more chance for them to take it and disappear. …
Paying a full year at once gets you only a small discount. If the company absconds, your deposit and the remaining ten-odd months of rent may all be gone. …
If the home is sold during the lease term, your lease remains valid. The new landlord must let you stay under the original contract through expiry. You do not move out and do not renegotiate the rent. …
Before you sign, have the landlord produce an identity card and the title certificate. Then take your identity card to the real-estate registration office and check whether the home is mortgaged or has been sealed. …
When an agent collects the purchase price, the rules say it must go through the dedicated account the agency opened at a bank. …
By rule, the smallest unit you may rent is the room as originally designed. Kitchens, bathrooms, balconies, and basement storage must not be lived in. During the lease the landlord also cannot raise rent unilaterally on a whim.
People with urban hukou must not go to the countryside to buy homestead land (宅基地), farmers’ houses, or “small-property-rights houses” (小产权房) — national documents expressly forbid it. …
An off-plan home is a home put on sale before it is finished. Without a pre-sale permit, the developer cannot sell it and cannot take earnest money. …
If you paid reservation earnest money but no formal contract was signed, or the loan was not approved, look first at whose fault it is. …
If the contract does not agree otherwise, and the area registered after handover differs from the contract by 3% or less, the price is settled on the actual area, with the extra returned or the shortfall paid. …
If the developer hands over late, send a written demand first. If it still has not handed over within three months, you can return the home. …
Before signing, take your identity card to the real-estate registration office and check whether this home is mortgaged or sealed, and whether it was registered to someone else first. …
A mortgage rate is a benchmark rate plus a few points. The points added used to be locked for the life of the contract; from 2024 you are allowed to discuss changing them with the bank. …
For a first home, a housing provident fund loan of more than 5 years is at 2.6%; the rate on newly issued bank mortgages around June (6) 2026 was about 3.1%. …
The property manager must not cut water, power, heat, or gas to force you to pay property fees; if it happens, complain to the local real-estate authority. …
When the developer hands over, it must give you a Residential Quality Warranty (《住宅质量保证书》). …
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