Landlord Keeping Your Deposit? The Tribunal Wants 4 Kinds of Proof

Where do I claim a tenancy deposit in Hong Kong?

The deposit is your money, held by the landlord as security for your obligations under the tenancy. When the tenancy ends and the landlord keeps it, your claim is simply a claim for a sum of money. The court that hears it depends on how much is in dispute, not on the fact that a flat is involved.

Most residential deposits sit comfortably under HK$75,000. Two months' rent on a HK$25,000 flat is HK$50,000, which is a Small Claims Tribunal case even if the landlord is keeping every dollar of it.

The court people expect, the Lands Tribunal, is the wrong door. The Judiciary describes its tenancy work as applications by landlords for possession of premises, under the Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) Ordinance (Cap. 7) or under the common law. In those cases it can also order rent, mesne profits and damages. A tenant who has already moved out and wants a sum of money back is not asking for possession of anything.

What can a landlord lawfully deduct from the deposit?

For an ordinary flat there is no statute that lists permitted deductions. What the landlord may keep is decided by the tenancy agreement, read with the general law. The Community Legal Information Centre (CLIC), run by the University of Hong Kong, summarises the position in one sentence: the landlord may be entitled to forfeit the deposit in full or in part if the tenant fails to pay the rent or other sums due under the agreement, or if the landlord has suffered any damage.

Two phrases do most of the work in a deposit dispute. The first is fair wear and tear, the ageing that comes with normal use. CLIC says it is something the landlord may have to reasonably accept at handover, and that a tenant is not generally obliged to return the flat in its original state. The second is "to the reasonable satisfaction of the landlord", which appears in many Hong Kong agreements. CLIC is candid that there is no standard or determinative answer to what it means. Both sides are expected to use reasonableness and common sense.

Look at the table from the landlord's side. Every justified deduction needs the landlord to point to something: a sum left unpaid, or a loss caused by a breach. Your part of the case is short: you paid the deposit, the tenancy ended, you gave the flat back. The dispute is about each item the landlord says it may keep. That is why the four proofs below are organised around the landlord's items, not around your feelings about them.

Is there a legal cap on deposits? Only for subdivided units

One kind of tenancy in Hong Kong does have statutory deposit rules. Part IVA of Cap. 7, in force since 22 January 2022, regulates tenancies of subdivided units. The Rating and Valuation Department administers it.

Proof 1: is your tenancy agreement stamped?

The first thing an adjudicator reads is the agreement: the deposit amount, the clause that says when it is refundable, and the handover clause that sets the condition you owed. Bring the signed original.

Then check the back page for the stamp. The Inland Revenue Department's Stamp Office states that a tenancy agreement has to be stamped within 30 days after it is signed, that the people who executed it are liable for the duty, and that an unstamped tenancy agreement cannot be received in evidence in civil proceedings before a court. A tenant who files with an unstamped agreement has made the deposit clause very hard to prove.

It can be fixed late, at a price, and online through GovHK's e-Stamping service.

A worked example. A two-year lease at HK$18,000 a month has a yearly rent of HK$216,000, so the duty is 0.5% of that: HK$1,080. If nobody stamped it, the penalty scale in the table could multiply that figure by up to ten. The voluntary-disclosure formula is usually far smaller, and HK$500 is its minimum. Set that against a HK$36,000 deposit. It is worth doing before you file, not at the hearing.

Proof 2: what did the flat look like on move-in day?

Every damage deduction is a comparison between two dates. The landlord says a wall, a floor or an appliance was worse when you left than when you arrived. Without a record of the arrival, that comparison is your word against theirs, and the adjudicator has nothing to measure it with.

• Photographs or video taken on the day you got the keys, with the date the device recorded. Photograph each room from the doorway, then close-ups of anything already worn, stained, cracked or not working.
• The inventory schedule, if the agreement has one: the landlord's furniture and appliances, and their condition. CLIC notes agreements commonly list landlord's fixtures such as air-conditioners, appliances, doors and windows.
• Messages from the first weeks reporting defects to the landlord or agent. A defect you reported in month one cannot have been your damage in month twenty-four.
• Repair requests during the tenancy, and the replies. They show the landlord knew about a problem and when.

If you have none of this, you are not finished; you are simply relying more heavily on proof 3. Say plainly at the hearing that no move-in record was made by either side. The landlord, who is asserting the damage, usually has no better record than you do.

Proof 3: can you prove the date and condition of handover?

The handover proves two separate things: that the tenancy ended, which is when the deposit became repayable, and what state the flat was in at that moment. CLIC's recommendation is direct. After inspecting the flat, both parties should sign a written acknowledgement of its condition on handover, because that is what prevents later disputes over deductions.

Proof 4: have you asked for the deposit in writing?

A claim at the Small Claims Tribunal is much stronger when the landlord has already been asked, clearly, and has refused or stayed silent. A written demand also forces the landlord to name the deductions, which turns a vague refusal into a list you can answer item by item.

Send it in a form you can prove: email, messaging app, or registered post. Keep the reply, and keep the silence too. A landlord who never answered a clear, reasonable demand has a hard time presenting themselves as reasonable at the hearing. For the letter itself, see our guide to writing a demand letter a debtor cannot ignore.

How much does it cost to file at the Small Claims Tribunal?

The Judiciary sets out the rest of the procedure plainly. The claim forms, Forms 1 and 2, have to be filed at the Tribunal Registry in person, not by post, fax or email. The Tribunal sits on the 3rd floor of Tower B, West Kowloon Law Courts Building, 501 Tung Chau Street, Sham Shui Po. Before the hearing a Tribunal Officer may interview both sides to classify the case as defended or undefended, help bring about a voluntary settlement, and identify the main issues.

No legal representation is allowed. Someone other than a lawyer may attend for you only with a signed letter of authorisation, the Tribunal's permission, and full familiarity with the case. A corporate landlord sends an authorised officer, on the same footing as you.

Time is rarely the problem in a deposit case, but it is finite. A claim founded on a simple contract cannot be brought after 6 years from the date the cause of action accrued, under section 4 of the Limitation Ordinance (Cap. 347). For a deposit, that is normally when it should have been repaid.

And the result is close to final. Leave to appeal to the Court of First Instance is granted only on a question of law, or where the claim was outside the Tribunal's jurisdiction, and the application has to be made within 7 days of being served with the award, or of the written reasons if you asked for them in time. Prepare to win at the first hearing, because there is little afterwards.

Three questions to rehearse before the hearing

An adjudicator hearing a deposit claim is working through the items in dispute, so the questions are predictable. Have a one-breath answer, and a document, for each.

• Bring three copies of every document: one for the Tribunal, one for the landlord, one for you.
• Put photographs in date order, move-in day first, handover day second, with the room named on each.
• Write the arithmetic on one page: deposit paid, deductions accepted, deductions disputed, sum claimed.

Trial AI lets you rehearse that hearing before you walk into it: the questions an adjudicator will ask, the objections a landlord will make to each photograph, and the arithmetic you will have to explain aloud. It is not legal advice and does not replace CLIC or a solicitor. It is practice for a room where nobody may speak for you.