Deposit question - who do you pay it to?

Hi
I’m moving to Taipei in a few weeks and wanted to ask who do you pay the deposit to.
Obviously I thought you pay the deposit to the landlord but one of the roommates I contacted over e-mail (I’ve been sending emails in reply to adds on tealit) told me you pay the deposit to the leaving roommate (the explanation being that its a hassle going through the landlord as he does’nt speak english) and that in turn when I leave the place I’ll get the deposit from the next roommate.Is it customary? I am afraid that it might be a scam where I’d pay the leaving person, he’d collect his deposit from the landlord and the landlord will come and ask me for the deposit.

this screams out scam to me. especially with the other guy conveniently leaving the country.

make sure that the landlord knows whats up before agreeing with anything like this. otherwise you’ll be out twice the $$$.

Too ridiculous… that landlord has breach your right according to our civil law.

I wouldn’t be too worried…lots of people do it this way.
But it would still be a good idea to make sure the LL knows.

Yep…we have an arrangement like this. I’m actually having a problem at the moment trying to find someone to move into my room after I leave Taiwan at the end of the month so I can get my deposit back. Spoke to the landlord - apparently the first tenants paid him the original deposit years ago, but since then he’s had a steady stream of foreigners coming and going, and he’s happy with this arrangement, whereby the new tenant pays the deposit to the leaving roommate - as he would be, because he doesn’t have to look for new tenants himself!! His wife actually rang offering advice on how I can ‘market’ the place better, hehe. I’m worried I won’t be able to get my deposit back before I leave. Anyone else had this problem trying to fill a place before? I guess my roommates will collect the deposit on my behalf when the room finally does get filled, and have the money wired to me. :s

Yep…we have an arrangement like this. I’m actually having a problem at the moment trying to find someone to move into my room after I leave Taiwan at the end of the month so I can get my deposit back. Spoke to the landlord - apparently the first tenants paid him the original deposit years ago, but since then he’s had a steady stream of foreigners coming and going, and he’s happy with this arrangement, whereby the new tenant pays the deposit to the leaving roommate - as he would be, because he doesn’t have to look for new tenants himself!! His wife actually rang offering advice on how I can ‘market’ the place better, hehe. I’m worried I won’t be able to get my deposit back before I leave. Anyone else had this problem trying to fill a place before? I guess my roommates will collect the deposit on my behalf when the room finally does get filled, and have the money wired to me. :s[/quote]

You made yourself responsible for finding new tenants? WHY?

It’s completely normal. Lots of people do it that way here in ‘foreigner flats’.

Normal it is. It should be 1 or 2 months of your rooms rent too. Remember the other roommates don’t want you to be “angry guy” so they should tell you the truth. They have to live there too and stuff.

I know, I know. :blush:

Even more amazing, I knew full well what the arrangement was from the beginning. To be honest it hasn’t been too onerous a responsibility on my part - the responses have been coming in pretty quickly - but I did leave it a bit late to start looking, so it’s made for a frantic final few days in Taiwan. :s On the bright side, it’s provided a useful distraction from feeling sad about leaving!! Fairly confident about the chances of the room being filled in the next couple of days, though.

I can’t see myself renting a place that has this arrangement again, I have to admit.

Hi,

I’m curious, what is the average foreign renter looking for?

  • whole unit / room ?

  • what % is paid as a deposit?

  • furnished / or unfurnished?

  • facilities?

Regards
Michael

[quote=“mkegruber”]
I’m curious, what is the average foreign renter looking for? [/quote]

It’s very hard to set down rules for this, it can go from a room in a flat to a huge house. I live in a house where I pay less in rent than the interest of the mortgage would be.

Younger single foreigners teaching and not on an expat package would look for rooms, suites, or small flats, and they should be affordable.

I have 3 children, so I live in a house. Again it depends as foreigners here is a diverse lot.

2 months rent plus rent paid in advance would appear to be the norm.

Both are available, I would imagine that a fair share of foreigners would like their pads to be at least partly furbished.

I - like most of the people I live around - prefer unfurbished, as I have furniture coming out of my ears at the current stage.

My community has a gym, parks, swimming pool, a club etc. Mostly, I have lived in places where the only facility was a retiree sitting next to the entrance keeping tabs on people leaving and entering, and also receiving registered mail.

Again, it’s hard to say, however most foreigners would appear to look for something affordable, and that would mean that facilities would come rather low on the list of things they value.