Check a long-term rental’s escrow account before paying a full year’s rent at once

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. A rent loan makes it worse: if the rental firm is gone, you still repay the loan monthly. Before signing, check whether it has a publicly disclosed funds supervision account.

Cost

No cost at all. It takes only about ten minutes to check.

Benefit

Regulations require any housing rental business that sublets units to set up a dedicated escrow account for rental funds and make it publicly available. Subletting means a company rents entire properties from landlords and then re-rents them to tenants. The tiny discount from upfront annual payments simply does not outweigh the risk of losing both your deposit and all future rent payments if the company folds. For those who also take out rent loans, the risk is even greater.

Notes

Carefully check whether any loan is tied to your contract. If a third-party app lets you pay a full year’s rent at once to the rental company, and you then repay that amount monthly via the app, you will still be obligated to make those payments even if the company disappears. Never sign such a contract.

Sources · 1

1. 国务院 (2025). 住房租赁条例（国令第 812 号，2025 年 9 月 15 日施行）（第十九条）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202507/content_70329…