Topic: Rental deposits and landlord power: how many months, and how easily they can end it
What does China require?
Everyday topic
China's first nationwide regulation dedicated to housing rental, the Housing Rental Regulation (State Council Order No. 812), took effect on 15 September 2025. Article 10 requires the deposit amount, refund timing and any grounds for deduction to be written into the contract, and forbids the landlord from deducting "without proper reason" — but it sets no ceiling on the deposit amount at all, unlike Taiwan's two-month cap. Article 8 requires the contract to be signed under both parties' real names and filed with the local housing authority through a rental service platform, free of charge; a tenant can file it alone if the landlord does not. A notable feature of the new regulation is its fund-supervision requirement for rental platforms and agencies collecting rent or deposits on a landlord's behalf — a direct response to the collapse of several long-term rental apartment operators in the late 2010s and early 2020s, where deposits and prepaid rent collected from tenants were funnelled into the operator's own cash flow instead of being held for landlords, leaving both sides unpaid when the platform folded. The regulation now bars online platforms from directly collecting or holding rental funds and deposits on behalf of the parties.
What is this topic?
Taiwan's Housing Rental Market Development and Management Act caps the deposit at two months' rent (Article 7) and lists five grounds on which a landlord may end the lease early (Article 10) — four require thirty days' written notice, reclaiming the unit for reconstruction requires three months'.
Mainland China's Housing Rental Regulation (State Council Order No. 812, in force since 15 September 2025) only requires the deposit amount, refund timing and deduction grounds to be written into the contract — it sets no cap at all.
Japan's Civil Code Article 622-2 requires a landlord to refund the *shikikin* (security deposit), minus what the tenant owes, once the lease ends and the unit is returned; Japan additionally has *reikin* — "key money" paid to the landlord, usually non-refundable, that no statute requires or limits — and the Land and House Lease Act's Article 28 requires "just cause" before a landlord may refuse renewal or terminate, so a tenant cannot simply be told to leave.
The United States has no federal rule at all: HUD's role is limited to anti-discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, and deposit caps are set state by state — California's Civil Code §1950.5, as amended by AB 12 (effective July 2024), cut the limit from two or three months to one.
India's Model Tenancy Act, 2021 is only a template for states to adopt — it proposes a two-month cap for residential premises, six for commercial — but most states still run on their own older Rent Control Acts.
Indonesia's rental law still traces to the Dutch-era Civil Code (Articles 1548 onward); the deposit amount is left entirely to contract, and a landlord cannot evict a tenant who refuses to leave without going through court.
Brazil's Tenancy Law caps the deposit at three months' rent, held in a savings account (Article 38), while Article 46 lets a landlord reclaim the unit without cause once a contract of thirty months or longer expires.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.