My contract ends December, but I apparently told the landlord months ago I’ll be staying until next year summer. I never signed anything, but landlord is insisting I have to pay a penalty fee because I told him I’d stay longer in our chat last July, that I have no memory of but he did show me a screenshot.
Is this legally binding?
Is there anywhere I can take this? I prefer getting my 2 months deposit back than 1.
Generally a notice period equivalent to your payment periods is sufficient, i.e. if you pay monthly then 1 months notice is sufficient. Suggest contacting the good people at https://www.tmm.org.tw/ by phone or in person (they’re not so good with email). They provide free consultation with a property lawyer and should be able to answer your questions and provide a written note for your landlord. Other option is your local government offices, they have mediation services. Mention of either of these options may help the landlord do the right thing. Make sure you have a clear notification of your intent to quit at contract end before the deadline and keep it safe, even better if the landlord has responded to it. The nuclear option, and one I do not recommend, is to simply stop paying rent now, it takes two months skipped before the landlord can start to legally evict you.
An oral contract is legally binding if you can prove it this one is text. I’d say yes that’s binding unless it’s contents are non lawful.
Exactly, prove it. It’s probably possible, but highly unlikely to be the end all of truth in court. It would help an argument, not win one in my opinion.
Oral contracts are supposed to be legally binding, but only if it’s recorded (as there’s no way to prove otherwise). Texts are of course recorded.
Typical penalty for early termination is 1 months rent. But it sounds like you want to stay beyond the contract period. I never heard of landlords asking for penalty for staying over. Many landlords prefer to just go month to month and as long as rent is paid, he is happy.
I’ll let the lawyer types chime in with what the actual rule is. But asking for penalty for staying longer doesn’t seem common practice. But also if you’re already month to month, it doesn’t seem like you’re owed penalty.
The issue here is oral “contracts” are just as flawed as written ones. You need to word everything proper, getting everyone to loudly state their legal name, business name, intentions etc etc and record them saying it. If one can PROVE everything, great.
But usually it’s hard, if not impossible. In Taiwan, court decisions are erased more on popularity and befriending the judge rather than objective justice.
Good luck.
If you want to ensure your rights as tenants are respected, ask to have the lease notarized. Theses a fee though.
Notarized leases are stronger and if the landlord decides to withhold deposit on illegal grounds the court will take action against the landlord without you needing to sue.
Conversely if you stop paying rent the landlord can also get the court to act against you without needing to sue.
Thanks for everyone’s responses, I won’t reply one by one but I do appreciate it.
No, I want to move out earlier (or as per my end date on the first contract).
But the landlord showed me a screenshot in our text chat where I initially promised to stay after the contract ends. But he said, “I’ll update you later to see if we need to get anything signed” but never followed up with me.
I’m just wondering if it’s legally binding because I don’t wanna pay the penalty fee since I found out how incompetent they are (hence why I’m not staying longer than the agreed contract).
It’s probably not legally binding. You’ve fulfilled your contract and that’s that.
In court they’d have to prove that it was you who agreed to this but without a valid formal contract this won’t fly.
But then you have to remember suing for it (he might just take it out of your deposit) isn’t worth it.
Normally they only do notarized lease for commercial properties because it’s worth the fees.
But did you actually tell him you’d stay beyond the contract and decide to break it early? How much is the penalty?
Yeah he asked if I want to stay beyond that, I initially said yes, he said, okay I’ll update you in case we need to sign a contract for extension, never got back to me.
But now I don’t want to extend and just go at the end of my contract
Penalty is 1 month. Which I do mind since it’s a significant amount of money I don’t want to end up in his hands. Trying to renegotiate it to half a month since we didn’t sign anything new but he’s resisting it (probably got scolded by the wife)
You never signed anything, but then if he just decides to keep 1 month of your deposit you’d have to go to court to sue for it. The lawyer and court fees are likely multiple times this so if you want to sue over it on principle to punish asshole ish behavior, you can.
I mean I had moved out early after having actually signed an extension (at a higher rent too), he didn’t charge me a penalty.
Unless you signed a contract extension then you either continue without an agreement (just continue paying rent) or you move out at the end of the contract.
No penalty or anything like that, you’ve fulfilled your obligations of the contract. Basically, he’s talking out of his arse.
For your new rented place (if applicable), they may ask for his reference, or just evidence that you paid the rent plus a copy of the lapsed tenancy agreement.
The text means nothing, he’d have to prove it came from a number that you owned at the time that it was received as per his records and was not altered in his contact list since.
It’s in LINE though. I just got back from my landlord, said that “I have to honor our commitment in August” but the commitment was just like “hey you wanna stay longer” and i was “yeah sure” but no definite dates, no signed contract extension, nothing. So either I pay the penalty or stay an extra month.
A load of bullshit. Landlord just doesn’t want to get scolded by his wife or something lol
Quick question: Do they accept English and is there a fee for initial legal counselling?
English, I don’t know but if you visit in person and the lawyer is there it shouldn’t be a problem. Legal advice is free however, if your case is closed satisfactorily, I suggest giving them an appropriate donation as they’re a non-profit and provide a lot of help.
Does that “solved” mean it got worked out?
In a sense. I threatened legal action, and the landlord’s spouse with a better sense just made a deal with me.
Well saves me the trouble of not filling out papers. Seems like the couple’s concerned with saving face.