I have a 1 year rental contract which allows me to leave early as long as I give a 1 month notice.
I gave the notice today (i.e. 22nd March) to the landlord. I was expecting to move out by 22nd April and only having to pay rent for the 22 days.
But the landlord says she will deduct rent for the full month of April, even though my notice was earlier. What does the law say about this ?
Thanks
To be honest I am not sure , but it would seem fair to give a one month notice notice from the date of contract , whatever that date is.
Yes, I guess you are right. In fact the contract starting date was 1st of the month.
Just wanted to be sure.
Thanks,
Contact Tsui Ma Ma, they gave us excellent advice when moving out of our last place. We signed a contract on the 15th of the month but gave notice on the 1st and moved out at the end of the month, we were 5 months into our 3rd 1 year contract and received our full deposit minus agreed upon electricity/water/gas bills.
Note all facility companies will give you a billing amount over the phone once you provide a meter reading, it will include a % of standing charges due. It was very useful for us as our former landlady tried to insist on keeping the 2 months deposit pending arrival of bills. Once you hand over keys you have very little leverage to get your deposit back. Make sure the landlord signs your copy of the contract as closed with all bills paid.
I didn’t even know I needed to get something in writing before handing over the keys. Good Advice!
I just found the Tsui Ma Ma website. I will contact them tonight.
Should I make the calls to the utility companies in front of the landlord on the day of the inspection and have her return the money same day ?
Any ideas on the utility company phone numbers for Tainan ?
I emailed TMM a few times and never got a reply, phoned them during working hours and they transferred me straight away to their lawyer who very quickly got us up to speed on our rights. You can visit them if you don’t feel confident discussing in Chinese over the phone, they’re very familiar with the usual questions.
For electricity, which is usually the big ticket item, we brought our reading to the local power company office and they did up a hand written bill for us. For water and gas we called and they gave us the amount over the phone which we wrote down. The landlady verified the power amount and took our word for the others. I suggest preparing everything in advance. All the phone numbers are on your bills, if you don’t get the bills just ask a neighbour or colleague for the numbers.
We also recorded the entire meeting with the landlady (covertly!) as we knew there was likely to be an argument. In the end everything went smoothly even if not exactly friendly as we were polite but firm and had everything prepared in advance, including knowing our rights.
BTW, make sure the place is clean and in the same condition or better than when you moved in. Any furniture, appliances etc listed on the contract need to be there and in good working order. Most landlords in Taiwan are amateurs and just want a turnkey let to the next tenant without having to spend any time or money on cleaning and/or repairs.
Sounds about right, having to pay for the month. Since it is monthly based and not weekly you won’t find many landlords or even companies, such as your ISP, will knock off some of the price.
But dont forget, when you pay for the month, even if you move out before the month is up, dont give them the keys, not until the last day. It is still your rental home.
Interesting. I think our contract stipulates that if the lease is broken then half of the deposit is not returned.
Is it correct that your written agreement didn’t have that requirement?
Our written agreement had no break clause and stated the contract had to be fulfilled however this is apparently not legally binding so we gave one month notice and our deposit returned. If you give less than one month the landlord can withhold 1 month of deposit.
My contract is similar. There is no penalty for breaking the contract but I must give 1 month of notice if I want to leave.
Our first 2 apartments were like this, full deposit back and 1 month notice but we left 3 weeks after but doesn’t have to give keys back till 34th week was finished.
Don’t have to worry about it now, bought a place.
Making the situation difficult might make the landlord difficult, besides I would hope you got better things to do than waste time over 10 days of rent.
How about you just swallow your losses and pay the 10/9 days ?
Not sure what kind of place this is, but vast majority of rents are super little. Or, are we talking big money here ?
My rent is 20,000 per month so she has 40,000 as deposit. I was hoping to save 6,000. Anyways, turns out I was wrong so I am paying for the whole month now.
I am going to empty the apartment at the end of the month. The landlord still holds 40,000 in deposit (20 for one months rent, extra 20 for remaining bills or any damage etc.).
We just got the electric bill (for last month’s use). Since we are going to leave in 2 weeks, I asked the landlord to deduct it from the deposit. But she insists that I need to pay for it now because this bill has already arrived prior to my departure.
Any thoughts ?
P.S. The bill is not that much. It’s 3000 but I really want to avoid spending any extra money on this apartment.
I’d say you need to pay it now. Would be slightly concerned about her attitude though.
Make sure you get all the bills calculated and notify her of the readings and amounts before the final day, let her know she should bring or be prepared to bank transfer deposit-bills amount when you are handing over the keys and signing both copies of the lease agreements as terminated and all fees settled.
Ok Thanks for the advice. I will pay it then. By the way this is the message she sent to me when I suggested her to deduct it from the deposit earlier.
再等等看好了，雖然從押金扣除，水，電，瓦斯下期帳單還是屬於你們的使用期間
I google translated it but I can’t tell her tone from it. Overall though she has been less than friendly and very inflexible.
Since the notice she has told me at least 20 times that the house needs to be clean when I leave. Even though when she gave us the place it was quite dirty and a lot of the storage spaces (drawers, closets etc… ) had her old stuff in it. It took us days to clean the whole place back then. It is already cleaner than when she gave it to us.