If being threatened to be sued for slander and insult. Help!

Legal Legal - Real Estate & Housing
1

Suppose there is a HYPOTHETICAL situation

SITUATION BEGINS:
[
when moving out my landlord comes with a security guard (hired for that purpose), is yelling at me with pointing her finger at my face (like 1 inch away) and refuses to return 6000 from deposit claiming (falsely) that I did something wrong in the kitchen, then tells me to give her the keys
-(me) give me my deposit
-(landlord) give me my keys
-(me) first the deposit then keys
-(landlord) So you are stealing my keys.
-(me) You want to steal my money.

(landlord)calls the police.

While waiting she pushes me in the shoulder (the security sees and does nothing, but I alert him: sir, she just pushed me)

Police arrives. The exact same scene repeats. Police office tells me to give her the keys, get the rest of the deposit back and solve the problem later through court (if I want). I give in the keys.

Next day, from home, I send her an email in English saying:

Landlord name,

I know you most probably don’t believe in God, but be sure, in one way or another He will punish you for your lying and stealing my money (We both know I didn’t brake anything…) unless, of course, you repent and change.
Yesterday I agreed and left because I didn’t want to see you anymore, it made me feel sick.

However, I have forgiven you already, and honestly wish you to become a better person. Just try not to steal, lie, or badmouth others again.

God bless you,

My name

Then in several days I receive and official mail demanding an official letter of apology threatening to sue me for slander (stealing, lying) and write letters to the Taiwanese schools I am applying as well as the Taipei Office in the country I am from, telling them no to give me Taiwan scholarship.

I end up writing a letter:

Dear Ms. NAME

First of all, I would like to thank you very much for letting me rent a room in your house.

I want to sincerely apologize for all the misunderstanding.

What I wanted to say was “I am not sure whether your keeping a part of the deposit is duly justified” but due to cultural differences and my poor knowledge of Chinese, I may have expressed it in a way which is inappropriate in Taiwan. If it was so, I am very sorry.

Sincerely,

MY NAME

I doubt it is a satisfying. But I also think that she might want a letter of apology to have another file which is “He himself confirms!!!” thus it is dangerous to write anything concrete.

Landlord seems to be acting inadequately and is known to have kicked tenants out before and have sued them.

Witnesses:

  • Security agent hired by her
  • 2 workers inside the house
  • 2 police officers
  • 2 neighbours in their rooms.

]
SITUATION ENDS

In this HYPOTHETICAL situation, how can one defend oneself (if one doesn’t want any compensation from the landlord or even the money back, just wants to be left alone). Thank you.

2

Send your apology by post, registered mail so confirms she received it. Then forget about the money and don’t have any contact with her again…hopefully she’ll move on to the next ‘victim’. This is the most practical way to deal with it.

3

Thank you.
Do you mean a new letter? The apology mentioned above has been snt via registered post.

4

Do nothing.
First of all, what she is saying is not slander. It could be theft, it could be fraud, but slander is saying something untrue about another person (usually in public).

People in Taiwan love to threaten a lawsuit for slander. Usually nothing comes of it.

FYI, the FIRST thing to do in that situation (waaaay back when she called the police) was to call the Foreign Affairs Police to come as well. You will always come out second-best if you are dealing with a local and the local police. (Well, usually anyway.) Get the FAP in because that is their job, and they will speak English at least to some degree. Also, it will go on record somewhere else, which makes it that much harder for the landlord to later claim slander or anything else.

I’ve been threatened with a similar lawsuit in Taiwan. It scares you. But usually nothing comes of it. Lots of smoke, very little fire.

5

For 6000 I’d let it go. And if you are still pissed off in a few months, I’d remember that old Kilngon proverb about the best time for a certain dish…

6

[quote]People in Taiwan love to threaten a lawsuit for slander. Usually nothing comes of it.[/quote]Even if slander charges are followed through, they seldom lead to a conviction.

You don’t need any help. You just need to say nothing and do nothing about it. Let us know if you receive a subpoena or a visit by a police officer. Until then, just don’t worry about this. It’s nothing.

7

Thanks for the FAP tip. Hopefully I won’t need it again, but in case I do, I did a google search for FAP. Is it this taiwanstuff.com/fapolice.htm and the first number (02)23213175?

I am definitely not too worried about the 6000. I dont think she wanted to get the money so much, much more to humiliate me. Therefore I am worried about a person who might invest an unreasonably huge effort into ruining my life in TW.

Yes, a cold dish is always a possibility. But honestly, I just want peace for everybody, including her.

8

[quote=“alexandril”]Thanks for the FAP tip. Hopefully I won’t need it again, but in case I do, I did a google search for FAP. Is it this taiwanstuff.com/fapolice.htm and the first number (02)23213175?

I am definitely not too worried about the 6000. I don’t think she wanted to get the money so much, much more to humiliate me. Therefore I am worried about a person who might invest an unreasonably huge effort into ruining my life in TW.

Yes, a cold dish is always a possibility. But honestly, I just want peace for everybody, including her.[/quote]

Face, dear. It is all about face. For some Taiwanese, face is more important than life, heck, they will even sacrifice profit for it. Keep that in mind when you deal with people in any authority, being cop or landlord. Let the landlady sink herself, if she as much disses any law official, she’s going down, and you won’t have to move a finger.

The otehr thing, leave your posturing aside, and remember: he who gets angry and screams first, loses. The winner is the one who cries most. Play teh victim, beat them at their game. Never ever let them see you angry. Play the face game by their rules.

9

I didn’t raise my voice once; she was screaming from the beginning. Ok, victim it is.

I have another question:
From now on is it better to make any written or oral statements in English only?

10

So…this is not a hypothetical situation at all???

Does your former landlady speak good English? If possible, I’d love to hear the story from her too.

11

I think it is clear whether the situation is hypothetical or not :frowning:
But yes, just in case, let’s say it is hypothetical.

I’d love to hear the story from her side too, you know, but she is not answering phone calls or emails (and haven’t done so for a while) as well as never told me what exactly I broke and how she had know it in advance (i.e. how come it was written in the document which she typed and printed before coming to the apartment.), and spoke Taiwanese to police (while she speaks guoyu to everybody, including her children…)

She does speak quite decent English (although it’s not through Tealit that I found her). A year ago on this forum I read that one must be mostly aware of Taiwanese who are for no particular reason proficient in English. I second that now.

12

[quote=“alexandril”] A year ago on this forum I read that one must be mostly aware of Taiwanese who are for no particular reason proficient in English. I second that now.[/quote]Strange myth. Proficient in English for no particular reason? … Funny stuff.

13

[quote=“alexandril”]I think it is clear whether the situation is hypothetical or not :frowning:
But yes, just in case, let’s say it is hypothetical.

I’d love to hear the story from her side too, you know, but she is not answering phone calls or emails (and haven’t done so for a while) as well as never told me what exactly I broke and how she had know it in advance (i.e. how come it was written in the document which she typed and printed before coming to the apartment.), and spoke Taiwanese to police (while she speaks guoyu to everybody, including her children…)

She does speak quite decent English (although it’s not through Tealit that I found her). A year ago on this forum I read that one must be mostly aware of Taiwanese who are for no particular reason proficient in English. I second that now.[/quote]

Hm…did you have any other flat mates who are Taiwanese and willing to help you soften the situation between you two? Perhaps s/he might help you to understand why your landlady did this to you at least?

Anyhow, I reckon no matter which city we live in, it needs some luck to have a good landlord/lady :slight_smile:

14

Well, a year ago I got in some trouble in Hsinchu and posted this:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=78581&p=989183&hilit=hsinchu+scooter+Australian#p989183
where this advice popped up. (Over this year nothing else bad happened :slight_smile: )
Well, like those Chinese people who post apt ads on Tealit for example. I saw an apt on Gongguan for 14K/month with a window sized at two A4 sheets of paper, cockroaches and smell. So, yes, I second that.

My lease agreement back home had 12 pages, legal paper format, with everything possible included. Landlord is much less important when you have this kind of stuff (and a working law system to enforce it)

So far the landlady is not responding, i.e. she is either over it of preparing seriously for another step.

15

Many landlords here seem to excell in the nasty thieving art of avoiding returning a tenant’s deposit. I always tell them a few months before moving out, that I won’t be paying the last few months rent, and that they can take the rent out of deposit. I also make sure to some home improvement projects so that they can’t really complain. It saves hassle later on.

16

In my opinion it’s a bit stupid to bring your religious beliefs into any letter that is telling someone how mean they are. It is irrelevant in this situation and threatening someone with the old fire and brimstone is a bit 18th century. There are plenty of religious people on this island, your “one true God” idea is a bit naive.

17

I wouldn’t say it’s stupid. Naive - probably. In my defense I must say that I was in a quite agitated state, thus it wasn’t a well though out letter, at all. I don’t consider myself to be a fanatic monotheist (Christian or whatever), and in fact I study Chinese religions, but after suffering a major humiliation this content has somehow emerged, I was surprised myself. It was a first time in a decade or so that somebody was intentionally humiliating me just for the hell of it (I really don’t think NT 6000 mattered so much to her, she is quite rich)
And it wasn’t a threat really, more a wish. I do truly hope she will become a better person.

18

I made my new landlord cry.

I took over an apartment from a foreigner friend. Landlord doesn’t live in Taiwan. I sent her a 25 min dvd of the apartment with a summer tunes track on the day I moved in.

Don’t expect any problems when it comes time to moving out

19

I talked with one of my Taiwan lawyer colleagues about this, just to see if Taiwan’s concepts on this match in with much of the rest of the world. I think it does, although there is a lot of abuse of the local laws with the intention of intimidating foreigners. I recall a local DJ once filed a criminal charge against a client for “public insult” merely because the client used colorful swearwords as adjectives to describe his professional performance at a corporate event – not even direct cusses at him (e.g., “what the fck were you doing?!?", as opposed to a direct statement like "you are an incompetent fcker”). Problem for the client was that the DJ had apparently drilled his wee son (who was sitting outside the critique session at the time it was given) on how to repeat those words in the court. The little f-bomb-spouting tot was pretty bad at the first hearing, so the case was settled civilly.

Another example was the local university English professor who filed criminal charges and claimed an American had publicly insulted him in a dispute over a departmental vacuum cleaner by the improbable sentence: “You are the most barbaric Chinese.” Michael Turton’s brilliantly caustic remarks on this on his blog are worth the read: michaelturton.blogspot.com/2008/ … upper.html

According to my colleague, slander, libel, and “public insult” require an intention for more than just the listener to hear your words. In other words, the speaker or writer actually has to intend for more than just the recipient to hear about it. A private letter sent to a landlord really should not suffice to meet this intent, and the OP was even careful in this forum to delete the names involved. So, without third parties or an intention to spread the insult, slander, libel, etc. over to third parties, there really is no crime being committed.

20

Thanks.
The landlady has been silent for a week. Hopefully i won’t hear from here again, in any form.