Changing the lease but not really

Hi guys,
I hope someone can help me with this one…

I am renting a place. I thumb-printed the lease. The lease is up in March.
I want to move into a bigger place, in this same building at the end of this month.

I have 2 friends in Canada who are coming at the end of this month on 60 day visitor visas. They are planning to stay in Taiwan for a few years teaching English legally.

I want to give my friends this appartment. And move into a bigger one. I want them to take over the lease, not officially because they wont have a ARCs. They can continue paying the rent and bills and pay me the deposits.

Obviously I’d have to tell the landlord because the gossip would get out.

What legal rights do I have? Can the landlord say, nah you can’t leave your lease? Even though it is staying in my name?

How should I go about telling her? What’s the best Chinese way to give her face and make her feel like she is coming out the winner?

Looking for legal and cultural advice on this one!

THANKS, Steve

If the lease is expiring, there’s no obligation for the landlord to renew with you anyway, so it won’t come down to rights, it’ll come down to how she feels about it.

So I think the best thing to do is stress that they are your friends, that you’ll be staying in the same building and you’ll be responsible for the place and be able to help with communication. Landlords don’t usually like subleasing, but if it’s a friend they might think it’s fine.

Brian

I don’t think this situation has anything to do with culture but just on what kind of person your landlady is.

If she is cool she then won’t mind. If she’s not very trusting, she’ll either say no or increase the rent/deposit.

Either way, if you’re gonna do this and leave it in your name you better be able to trust your friends and or get a deposit from them, just in case they(or other ppl) trash the place and you’re stuck legally footing the bill.