On December 1, 2018, my apartment contract had expired, and I signed a new one. The agent who signed the contract gave me the WeChat ID of the person who was to give me the deposit back. This “deposit person” responded to my messages and said I needed to meet with her to sign the contract expiration letter and give her a debit card that she can send the money to.

She said it should take 15 business days for me to receive the money. I waited a month until I decided to ask them again when the money was going to come in. They said it will take a little longer than usual because there were many deposits to give back at this time. So I waited a little longer, but was growing impatient. It was a lot of money, 10,100 yuan (US$1,638). A few weeks later they stopped answering my messages. So, just before Chinese New Year I decided to go back to the place where I signed the contract.

Nobody was there. I tried calling them, but no answer. After Chinese New Year, I kept calling until the phone number was cancelled. The phone number on the deposit person’s WeChat account was deactivated. After this I decided to go to my school for help. I teach at the Affiliated International School of Shenzhen University. I knew they would be able to help me with this situation.

I am very fortunate to work for a school that is willing to take the extra step to help me with any problem I might have. I explained the situation with the secretary in the main office, Cherry. She looked at my contract and called a few phone numbers on it, but none of them were working. She was able to reach my agent, but he said it was not his responsibility and he did all that he could to help us.

With nobody answering our messages, and nobody at their office space, we decided to go to the police. We found a few more phone numbers, but nobody was answering, except the agent. He answered the phone call but reiterated to the police that he was not responsible and did all he could.

The police said that with no phone numbers answering, we needed to go to the court and file litigation against the company.

Cherry and I went over to the court house and began the process of filing litigation against the company. It was a long process that required a lot of paperwork to fill out, waiting, and then finally speaking with a court official about my problem. Cherry and I learned a lot through this process.

It felt really good to see her trying so hard to help me with this problem. We spent the whole day trying to figure this out and, in the end, it worked.

The next morning, after filing the litigation with the court house, the deposit person messaged me with a receipt that said my deposit had been sent. First thing I did was text Cherry to thank her for all of her hard work. We laughed at how fast we got the money back. Now I know that if I get sick or run into any other problems, my school will have my back. I also have to give credit to the court house. They did an excellent and professional job in handling my case.

Now that all of this is done, and my current apartment deposit is paid, I can say I feel a little safer living in the city.

I always felt that China was safe, but now I know that as long as I am a good person and follow the rules, then good people will be here to protect me.