My landlord has decided to end my rental contract early. It’s a complicated situation that is not my fault to be clear, and I’m being forced to leave before the end of the contract. Also, the landlord is withholding my deposit upon leaving until all remaining bills have come in so they know how much I owe before they’ll return it to me.
I’m not happy about anything in this situation and I want to know what my legal rights are here.
This is the time that you extract compensation/damages from him.
You just say no. And invite him to negotiate if he really wants you out.
What does your contract say? Generally it’s the same penalty to the landlord as it is to you if you left early before contract ended. If they refuse this, then stay two months without paying rent and leave. The law would be in your favor if they took you to court. Check your contract though.
I have already agreed to leave, but it’s not in writing anywhere just a Line message.
The contract I have is the standard template contract you can buy in 7/11, has no modifications as far as I’m aware. But it is in Chinese which I cannot read.
A Line message is in writing.
Just use google translate. There’s many versions of the contract. Early termination clause is typically you need to give a month notice and penalty is one month rent, reciprocal for both you and landlord. So in this case landlord needs to give one month notice and pay one month penalty.
I can use Google translate but the contract is long and I don’t know where to start looking for what I’m trying to find.
Screenshots? I have no idea which version of the contract you signed. Here is one. It lists penalty for lessor and lessee. You can run through google translate and it lists penalties and exceptions.
Maybe see Article 10 here:
https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=D0060125
I can’t find the details now, but I thought it was possible to ask for up to one month’s compensation or something.
I would be disputing them keeping your full deposit too - there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to estimate the remaining bill costs.
Utility bill costs can be calculated by placing a call to utility company and asking for a bill up til today. It’s been done when I bought a property and when real estate lady handled my previous lease.
You’ve agreed in writing to leave. Did you also agree the date when you will leave?
Do you have the previous page too? You might have signed a contract with no termination fee clause for lessor and lessee if enough notice is given
If that’s the case, you still have the right to demand deposit back on move out day. But you’ll have to call utility company and make sure payment is made up til the day you leave (go to 7-11 to pay it before meeting landlord so you have receipt). I only hand back keys if they hand back deposit.
I just translated the previous page and yes it does mention the one month compensation for either party if the other party terminates the agreement early.
Thanks for your help.
This. Even though you agreed to leave, you can bring up that you want to discuss the penalty for early contract termination at their convenience. And please call out that the penalty must be settled before you leave.
This. It is actually easy to have everything settled on that day to pay out.
And so the topic title is wrong. It should read “I have agreed to leave my apartment early”.
It could have been a spoken Line message, perhaps, but the landlord will still have it.
The work around on agreeing is that he/she can still ask when the penalty will be paid. No idea what the law is, but often times I have seen contracts being broken it was a fee of 2 moths rent. Given most deposits are also 2 months. It can just become a pain in the ass right quick.
Another thing, those book shop contracts aren’t very binding. No actual governemnt type contract will allow them. So it becomes a nightmare in court usually. Not worth it unless the numbers are quite high.
