There are serious consequences if they remove or cover up the tape. I will provide a report of what goes down, I’m expecting fireworks of one sort or another. We’ll have two clerks with us and there’s a police station on the corner if they are required.
Are they already aware that this will happen and that it will be this Friday or will it be a complete surprise?
They’ve had a letter informing them of this visit. I have to be present, but they can choose not to be.
I hope everything went ok for you today, I hope your ex employer hasnt / wont try anything to harm you.
Waiting for your update @Hubert_Golightly!
And here it is. More drama, more dirty tricks.
Our scheduled appointment to tape up her property (which she today informed me is tented out) prompted a sudden wish to pay up, so early this morning we received calls, first from her lawyer, then from the clerk at ______________ District Court, stating that she would meet us later this morning and settle in full in cash. So we went there at the appointed time, but, of course, things were not as promised.
Rather than settle both claims, she tried to force payment on us only for one part and, with the connivance of the clerk, who behaved like a complete prick, yelling at my wife, ordering us to sign, shouting at me not to speak to my ex-boss (we were speaking in a civil manner, I responded, “I’ve known her ten years and you’ve known her ten minutes, you shut up.” Anyway, if you ever wondered who all those urinals at knee-height are for, it’s this guy.) The boss was trying to pay only part of the claim and get her property unfrozen. Rather than sign anything, we simply walked off. A few minutes later the ex-boss stormed past and out of sight.
I thought she’d be back, because she knew the taping up was scheduled for this afternoon. Sure enough, she returned and went to talk to the clerk. We waited round the corner (which was a mistake), figuring she’d need us again. During this time she hatched a plan and paid part of the claim to the court (rather than us) and this won a reprieve re taping up her property (but it is still frozen.) The clerk then had her write and sign a useless promise to pay the second part of the claim into my pension account within X days. She then insisted that this was the same as having paid, so her property should be unfrozen. The clerk told her no, having paid requires, erm, paying, and then supplying me with proof which I check and then confirm to the court. In other words, she is mine.
Formerly chatty, albeit briefly, she now returned to acting like a spoilt child, and I taunted her on her walk to the elevators. “I know you want to pay the absolute minimum to unfreeze your property, so let me tell you what the absolute minimum is: all of it. All of it, please, every penny. Or we’ll be there to see your tenants, and we’ll bring your entire clan to court. So pay, ________!”
She now has 2 weeks to pay the remainder or we reschedule taping up. I am 75k better off, but it was 3 hours of total bullshit.
NT$25,000 per hour for a morning’s work. That’s not bad. 
I’m looking forward to the day in which you receive everything owed to you.
Guy
I have a funny feeling she is going to argue the note she provided should be claimed as a promissory note. By doing this she will claim it was the clerks fault for not properly instructing her on including a debt realization date. In other words the absolute last day that the debt should be paid. Her lawyer gets to argue that he was only following his clients instruction and the instruction of the court as the court clerk is an officer of the court.
Why do I think this? Because she demanded that the property subject to the court order be unfrozen after she provided the note. Not the payment.
The poor clerk that got dragged into this is probably going to end up on the hook and either end up paying you or find themselves being sued by your old boss.
Having said that I think it’s beyond time the Taiwan government introduce a mechanism to report dodgy and often illegal contracts. With financial punishments enforced for including material that has been deemed illegal. If these dodgy schools knew that there was an office we could send dodgy contracts to so they could be reviewed and reported these dodgy schools would eventually be forced to stop forcing foreigners to sign dodgy contracts.
Waited a full 10 years for that money.
I suppose that does take down the estimated hourly rate a bit doesn’t it.
Still, some progress!
Guy
My wife pointed put that such a date should be included in that note and he refused because, “You walked off while I was talking to you.”
They can argue what they want. The property has multiple owners and I have already filed with the court to drag them all in to untangle her share from theirs. Massive inconvenience.
That kind of overhaul to the legal system would severely curtail the exercise of sovereign priviledge and regulatory arbitrage. Doubt the overloads and their constituents would be enarmoured of it.
That’s why dodgy schools always have two contracts, one you sign while they watch you like a hawk so you can’t take a picture of it or take home, and the other ‘legal’ one that gets sent to the MOL
And they have built an entire industry of scamming foreigners in general. Killing that cash cow won’t come easy, whether for cram school teachers, foreign labourers, or caregivers treated like property. Too many vested interests and politicians would lose votes.
Just for the record, it was her name I blanked out, not an insult.
Yup. I posted about the 2 contact scam previously. You can report them for this to the WDA, I think it is.
Personally, I think that’s the worst part of it: Despite being in the wrong, they can just keep dragging things on and on. Many people probably just give up in similar situations. In the end, it really erodes the trust of the people in the legal system. And that’s not just an issue in Taiwan unfortunately…
Indeed. My Taiwanese wife is always stressing how important it is not to shame anyone here and yet Taiwanese frequently behave in such an absolutely shameless manner. This ex-boss howled like a madwoman in court over how she shouldn’t have to pay me a week’s money she promised (her LINE message: “I will pay you”.) Seriously, in what other country’s high court would someone debase themselves over a few hundred dollars?
Also note: this ex-boss operates a school full of computers, furniture, books, but I can’t seize this property via a bailiff (an office that appears not to exist here), yet if I, a worker, lose a claim against me, it’s straightforward to contact my employer and have 1/3 deducted from my salary each month. This ex-boss is pleading poverty while operating a school with 150 students. It’s hugely unfair.