Am I being unreasonable with wanting my deposit back?

Legal General Legal Matters
1

[quote=“UltimateMeiMei, in her original post,”]Here’s the gist:

-Moved into an apartment w/2 British guys last month. Moved to Taipei without any knowledge of the city and now dread my daily 40 min or so commute to Shi-Da. It’s about 1.3 km/1 mile to the closest MRT station.

-Kind of expensive, NT10,000/month for small room, share bathroom with guy & his girlfriend (though didn’t mention this at first).

-Paid deposit of NT20,000. Verbal agreement that I’d stay for about 3 months.

-Since I’m a student, my parents pay for everything. They’re unhappy with my living situation and want me to move out at the end of the month, so I just let my roomies know & said I would put ads up.

MAIN PROBLEM: I can’t get my NT20,000 deposit back because I’m breaking a verbal agreement of being here for 3 months.

Is this “right”? Do I have no choice but to relinquish my deposit to them? The landlady won’t get involved because she said I rented from the 2 guys, not from her.[/quote]
Problem solved, thanks guys! I must edit/delete this post because both read Forumosa so I don’t want to create more animosity or uncomfortability between us. Thank you two for your advice :slight_smile:

[color=red]Admin: I was able to reconstruct the basic elements of your post but left out any part that might “create more animosity or uncomfortability” between you and your roomomates. Hope this works for you…[/color]

2

I’d say they are right, because you are breaking the (verbal) lease. Still, if I were in your roommates’ situation, I would give you back the deposit and chalk it up to bad lack.
If I were you, I’d stay the three months and get the money back.
Or: be less and less agreeable - don’t avoid going home - go home and use the facilities you’ve paid for. Maybe they will get so annoyed that they will want you to leave, in which case you can agree to go only if they give back the deposit.

3

Say “bye bye” to your money unless you want to do something more drastic. They don’t have to give you any back because you probably have nothing in writing. Destroy something of value before you leave like one of their motorcycles.

Find somewhere else to live. You can find an apartment owned by Taiwanese where you can pay pretty cheaply. Like a small hotel room.

Chalk it all up as “Mom an Dad, I found a cheap place and it’s clean and livable and it’s only 15000/month!” and they’ll send you the cash. End up costing you nothing because mom and pop are paying and they’re worried about you. As am I, actually.

I’m not judging.

4

I would say that you lost that deposit the day you handed it over without making a proper contract between you and the guy subleasing to you. He has absolutely no legal reason to give it back. And why would you give a depost of NT$20,000 if you are only going to stay in the place for three months?

5

[quote=“UltimateMeiMei”]Here’s the gist:

-Moved into an apartment w/2 British guys last month. Moved to Taipei without any knowledge of the city and now dread my daily 40 min or so commute to Shi-Da. It’s about 1.3 km/1 mile to the closest MRT station.

-Kind of expensive, NT10,000/month for small room, share bathroom with guy & his girlfriend (though didn’t mention this at first).

-Paid deposit of NT20,000. Verbal agreement that I’d stay for about 3 months.

-Since I’m a student, my parents pay for everything. They’re unhappy with my living situation and want me to move out at the end of the month, so I just let my roomies know & said I would put ads up.

MAIN PROBLEM: I can’t get my NT20,000 deposit back because I’m breaking a verbal agreement of being here for 3 months.

Is this “right”? Do I have no choice but to relinquish my deposit to them? The landlady won’t get involved because she said I rented from the 2 guys, not from her.[/quote]
Depends on what you are prepared to do.

Mentioning to the landlady that you may have to sue the other tenants might wake her up, because technically she is supposed to pay tax on the rental income from that flat and I’ll bet a dollar to a donut that she isn’t. Most landlords don’t. Of course, if she could put in a good word to get the deposit back, there would be no need to sue and/or get others involved.

I think that reasonably speaking, the folks who rented to you have no ethical right to keep the entire deposit. You did not do any damage; you might be “damaging” them by moving out earlier than planned, but I can’t see where they reasonably “deserve” the whole $20K. Maybe you can negotiate with them, pointing out that you are helping them to find someone else to take the room, there is no damage, etc. etc. Whether or not they are reasonable people is another thing.

If there is no written agreement about how long you would stay, then there is equally well no written agreemnet stating that they get to keep your deposit. Do you at least have a receipt for it? That would probably be helpful.

Try negotiating with them first, and if that doesn’t work you might turn the screws on the landlady just a little bit and see what happens. Or else just chalk it up to experience, but I can see where a $20K lesson is expensive.

6

J99—

Thanks, but even my parents would think NT15+ is expensive! My mom is Taiwanese, but living in the States…so…she was pretty “I TOLD YOU SO” when I griped about the expensiveness and really bad location of the apartment and my situation.

Sigh…I probably should have listened to them. This is one of the first and only times I’ll admit that.

7

Jive Turkey — shrug, I had no idea that was expensive or a stupid thing to do. Keep in mind I had only come to Taiwan for 3 days before I found the place, I’m really young and totally inexperienced. Never lived abroad save for once in South Africa, but that was totally coordinated because I was studying at a university as well.

Ironlady — Thanks for the legal perspective. I’ll keep it in mind if it has to get to that point.

Right now I think they’re going to grudgingly give me back my money, but they’re going to make my life pretty miserable for the remainder of my time here. Or maybe not, but I still feel pretty bad leaving on very bad terms. :frowning:

8

[quote=“UltimateMeiMei”]Problem solved, thanks guys! I must edit/delete this post because both read Forumosa so I don’t want to create more animosity or uncomfortability between us. Thank you two for your advice :slight_smile:[/quote]For the record, deleting content is very much frowned upon at Forumosa - in fact, depending on the degree of deletion, it can be a bannable offence. People here take time and thought to answer your queries and deleting you post makes their replies meaningless. Please don’t do it again. While we’re on the subject of rules, please refrain from cross-posting identical or similar messages to multiple forums. It’s a form of spam.

From the rules:

[quote]
Cross-posting the same or similar messages in different forums/threads is spam. Post a topic once in the most appropriate forum. If a moderator moves your post to what he or she feels is a more appropriate forum, respect their decision. Cross-posted messages will be deleted or floundered.[/quote]
I understand your reasons for wanting to delete your post, but please understand the reasons behind the rule. Thanks, and have a nice day. :sunglasses:

9

[quote=“Maoman”]

I understand your reasons for wanting to delete your post, but please understand the reasons behind the rule. Thanks, and have a nice day. :sunglasses:[/quote]
I ditto Maoman’s comments.