my and my partner would like to adopt one or two cats in the future. we currently live in an older apartment in new taipei, it’s a non-elevator building, not a ‘community’ one.
my partner owns this apartment, his parents purchased it over 20 years ago. however recently his mom told us we can’t have any pets in this apartment since apparently there’s an “agreement” between the residents. multiple people on our street own dogs though and you can regularly hear them bark, too.
is there any legal basis for this agreement? i was under the impression that if you’re a homeowner, you’re allowed to essentially do what you want inside your house as long as it’s not directly impacting your neighbours, but maybe i’m too naive.
no matter how much i google i can’t really find an answer to wether we’re now legally allowed to own a cat, if we have to ask our neighbours for permission, or if they could get our potential cat taken away if we don’t follow their rules. it just says a homeowner committee can set rules on pets. there’s only about 6 households living in our building though, so i doubt there’s a proper ‘committee’ in the first place.
does anyone have any clear answer for this?
thank you so much!!
edit:
god i wish i had mentioned less details because somehow this has turned into a discussion on taiwanese MILs and who owns our home i understand the sentiment, but just to clarify, my MIL does not care if we have a cat or not, she only mentioned that she thinks there was an agreement/a rule not to have pets in our apartment building which could be a problem. our previous landlord in another apartment also told us we couldn’t have pets because of the building’s no-pets rule (not his choice, according to him, but again idk).
when i made a google search i only found that home owner/building associations could make such rules and seemingly regularly do, however i couldn’t really tell if this had any legal background or not. all i was worried about was, that if we did get a cat, our neighbors could sue us or get the cat taken away lol, but seems like that’s not the case so thanks everyone!
Not that my two cents amount for much, but it sounds more like a “gentleman’s agreement” not to do “xyz” that may unintentionally annoy your neighbor. But that wouldn’t make too much sense if people had children running around because they make lots of noise too…
As mentioned above, “legally” is not the point here - a private agreement was reached over the matter between the other residents. This is fairly common with these older buildings and not necessarily a bad thing. I’d say you have two options:
Just get the damn cat and don’t tell anybody. Realistically, nobody’s going to know. But your partner may have a different opinion about that sort of thing.
Go and talk to the other residents and see if they care. They most likely won’t (the people who made the agreement, if it even exists, may not live there anymore).
However I suspect this might be a case of a controlling Taiwanese mother-in-law who doesn’t want you to have a cat, for reasons unknown. And if you get the cat and mother-in-law starts causing ructions about it, it could all blow up into a massive problem. Also: when you say your partner ‘owns’ the apartment, but his parents paid for it, it’s likely that the parents consider it to be their apartment, and therefore their rules apply.
The ‘legalities’ really don’t matter here. You might have formal HOAs in the big housing developments (typically run by the building company) but Taiwan is a society where people often just make their own arrangements. Anyone over 50 can remember a time when it was best not to interact with “the Law”.
You’ll most likely find there’s someone in the building who is the self-appointed Boss. Get him or her onside and you’ll be fine.
Legally your neighbours cannot tell you that you cannot have pets. None of their business. Are they going to tell you cannot have children? Stand your ground and have your pets.
unfortunately my chinese isn’t great yet so i’m not entirely getting these articles but this is not an unheard of thing that anyone is just making up just because some of you haven’t heard of that kind of thing doesn’t mean my MIL is evil and making stuff up
As I wrote no one can stop you having a pet. A friend of mine just bought a place on 3rd floor with no building management… Some neighbours concerned he moved in with his dog. They got the well I bought this place and you have no say about my pet. Bye.
yeah afaik there’s no official management or anything! sorry as i said my chinese isn’t the best to i wasn’t sure if im understanding the articles properly. so probably it should be no problem then from all i’ve seen now, even if neighbors agreed they don’t have any actual say in what we do i guess. thank you!
to clarify, many apartment style housing are strata styled. so everyone in the “block” is an “owner” and there are common laws that apply.
for more actual ownership, fee simple style, or at least as close to actual ownership one can get in a country, there still remains the issue of multiple owners on a title. for rental type contracts, you need over 50% of the owners signature on a contract for it to even be considered in court. example. House has 5 people on the title. brothers, sisters, parents, uncles…etc. often times, in a taiwan fashion, its easy to rent and get along. but this ignorance comes around to bite on in the ass when taiwans golden rule shows its ugly face: Its not a problem until its a problem! one can escape laws very easily here, as its a favourite past time in society here. but once there is a problem, it all reverts back to law. and that ugly fact many people enjoy avoiding a discussion with here. be it the renter that is dumb or the landlord that is evil. or whatever the situation may be.
either way, if its a rule for that building, it will be in writing, otherwise its not a rule. its a suggestion with possible consequences. its hard being naive and having to learn this the hard way. but for those that take the time to ask, read, learn etc, headaches are easier to avoid. albeit slower to find that “perfect” house.
long term, the other golden rule of life also applies: If you want it done right, do it yourself. this saying is not as shallow and simple as it may sometimes appear.
(5) The apartment building is a building for public use. The residents have different genders, ages, family members and living habits. In order to jointly create a harmonious and livable living environment, pets are not prohibited from being kept by the law.
The government does not have a law for each house. that doesnt mean strata, and alike (whatever all the different variations may be called), conditions do not apply to certain buildings. no? I may be wrong in this assumption. also they say the “apartment building” is for public use, in your quote. we can shoot a few holes in that “theory” if taken literally. but i dont think that aspect matters unless one lives in one and wants to fight the public from entry. starting with, they are private holdings, so only the outer areas could possibly be public use, like the areas in front of row housing on the first floor. it gets really messy real quick between law, rules for the building and peoples opinions on entitlement.
probably the exact legal definition of “apartment” in mandarin is more important before going down a deep dive into how different buildings and shared areas are legally defined
not related to cats, but pets, some buildings (as an example) have weight limits. this means many will “ban” “fish” when they might actually just be simply blanket “banning” super heavy shit that might cause structural things. wording like “such as” “eg.” come to mind.
again, it will all be in writing. the original poster can easily ask for the rules as written in their actual legal form for clarification. again, i am doubtful this is anything legally binding and most likely jsut an asshole pushing control or perhaps an ostrich not having the mandarin skills nor maturity to just explain things nicely. so, i digress. its either in writing or not
a fun thought still remains. if a person owns the aprtment, and say has a child deathly allergic to say cats. where would it go from there? food alergies i assume are hard to ban as everyone needs food, cats are not essential. anyway, all fun to think about, but the OP just needs to read teh contract and understand what it means. its an easy solve. also, most likely, put that mother in law in her place if she is being a total control freak.
There is nothing in writing just some informal agreement with previous owners… This cannot be transfered to new owners. Read what contract? Something that does not exist. Read the OP’s post.
All she is asking is can the other apartment owners legally stop her from having pets. They cannot. End of story. OP also stated her MIL is not being a control freak. That was the usual suspects claiming to know about her realtionship between her partner and her partners parents when they know nothing.
Sure. if not in writing, then not. exactly… been said many times. conversation evolved. comes full circle. check whats in writing. more importantly, dont be a wuss. ask the person telling you for the thing in writing. this is the best way. if they cant, put the bitch in her place. or the dick. whichever it may be, in their place… but do it strategically, people here tend to be glass hearted. especially in public.
i understand the sentiment, but just to clarify, my MIL does not care if we have a cat or not, she only mentioned that she thinks there was an agreement/a rule not to have pets in our apartment building which could be a problem. our previous landlord in another apartment also told us we couldn’t have pets because of the building’s no-pets rule (not his choice, according to him, but again idk).
