Is it illegal for a tenant to sublease an apartment without signature from the landlord?

Hi everyone, it’s my first time posting in this community. Thanks in advance for reading and any suggestions/advice.

TL;DR: Do I have any recourse to go after apartment deposits if the contract was based on a sublet, seemingly without the landlord’s permission?

I’ll try to keep in short. Feel free to ask for more details.

About 3 months ago, a fellow foreigner friend and I responded to a Facebook posting to take over a lease from two people (one foreigner, one Taiwanese).

Together, they planned to move to abroad later this year. They were committing to living abroad for one year but wanted to keep their apartment with most of their belongings incase they decided to move back to Taiwan. Besides two visits back to Taiwan they planned to take over that year period, the apartment would be ours and we could even use the third bedroom for occasional guests.

We met them and viewed the apartment and they seemed fine. They told us that we wouldn’t need to contact the landlord, we could just contact them with any issues. Naively, that unfortunately didn’t ring any bells for me.

A couple weeks after signing the lease and giving them our deposits, they decided they were going to lease out the 3rd room without our permission. It wasn’t explicitly stated in the signed agreement that they wouldn’t fill the room but through our in-person meeting and through text messages it was confirmed that we would have the 3rd room for our own use. At this point, my friend was already living with them. I was not as I was living out the end of my prior lease.

We were not happy with this. Reluctantly, we decided to deal with it since we found a friend who would be the third roommate and we didn’t want to deal with moving around again. That was definitely a mistake.

While waiting for them to move abroad, my friend was getting fed up with their uncleanliness and horrible attitudes about everything (I’ll spare the details on all of that as it could be a post on it’s own). She decided she couldn’t take it anymore unless they were leaving the country soon.

So in a text, she asked when they might be leaving (she did it in a subversive, nice way). In the same message, she asked for the landlord’s contact info “incase of emergencies” while they were gone. A very reasonable request.

Well, they lost at that request saying that that was totally unnecessary and we could only contact them. This is went I realized that not having the landlord’s signature on the lease was likely on purpose (I know, I’m silly).

This was the final straw for my friend and she immediately moved out, left the key, and sent a message to them saying we (she and I) weren’t a good fit (for them).

In total, she lived there just about a month and I didn’t stay even one night (I was planning to move in 3 days later). A few days later she sent a nice e-mail asking for our deposits back with our bank info.

They ignored and blocked her messages.
I sent a similar message a few days later and the same thing.

The apartment immediately went back up on Facebook for a higher price.
Based on a Facebook post from someone else, they eventually totally turned over the lease to someone else rather than just subletting it.

After learning this, as well as a Taiwanese friend telling me that subletting is illegal without expressed permission from the landlord, I decided to e-mail them and again ask for our deposits in a stronger manner. (I wanted to do this earlier but because the agreement says we have to pay 2 months rent for breaking the contract so I was worried they might pursue that if I pushed too hard).

They replied basically telling me to go fuck myself because we broke the lease, without acknowledgement of any of their bullshit. This was a week ago and I haven’t yet answered. I’m also pretty sure they are abroad now (but they will obviously come back at some point since one of them is Taiwanese).

So do I have any recourse to seek back our deposits since the landlord was seemingly unaware of their sublet attempt?
If so, how should I go about it?

If you read this long thanks so much. Or if you didn’t but still have some thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
Cheers.

Getting 2 month deposits back from landlords is hard enough in Taiwan.

Your situation sounds like you have very little recourse. Those people might be running this gig repeatedly who knows.

Sorry this happened, but you have to be super careful dealing with deposits here.

no recourse?
I’d start telling the 2 original sub-letters that I’m going to local police office and/or “Li Zhang” to get name of original landlord and contact landlord to start legal discussions. Threats can go both ways. Heck, maybe even talk to @Marco’s lawyer for consultation on what to do.

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Police can give real landlords details out? No privacy laws?

who knows, but if those 2 sub-letters told me to fuq off, I’d go nuclear on their asses.

Not related, but based on your description, I’m starting to believe one my neighbors is illegally subletting to his roommate.

They scream and fight EVERYDAY, at first I thought they were a gay couple, then I thought they were brothers, but I found that’s not possible since of them is an indian guy 2m tall while the other is 1.6m and seems taiwanese.

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You probably already learned this by now but always get your landlord’s signature. You need that signature to register your address as a foreigner for example.

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Thanks for your reply. Don’t worry, I’ve definitely learned my lesson.

But just for clarification, it’s not the landlord who has the deposits.
It’s the two guys who were subletting to us.
So I don’t even know if the landlord knew they were subletting out.
(They were also renting our their other rooms to AirBnb guests before we signed the agreement).

Does that change your opinion at all?

Thanks for your reply.
So you think if I went to just any police station with the story and messages from the sublet dudes, there’s a chance something could be done about it?

Maybe try the Li-Zhang (village chief), which every little sub-area of a district has. They might not like foreigners doing illegal things in their village. Ask for their advice maybe.

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You do realise they could also be reading this forum, so be careful what you say.

In your situation i would go for the legal advice option as you have said they could be living the country soon. I wouldn’t bother trying to find the landlord, thats waisting time. contact @Marco 's lawyer or the free legal advice service.

Just keep all your messages screen shots and paperwork as you may need it later.

Anything else that may or may not have been doing is between them, the landlord, the police and The Tax Office :wink:

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thanks for your reply, it’s much appreciated.

Sorry, I’m a newbie on the forum. How would I go about about contacting Marco’s lawyer? just shoot a message to Marco?

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I actually use the same link to the image for every post! Saving the forum space!

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I think this should become your avatar and your title should be your disclaimer :wink:

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But what about the CPA?

And I might have a third card for anyone who wants a freelance buying agent so they can finally buy their house and get that bloody guarantor-free mortgage!

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an animated gif?

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I tried animated GIFs for my avatar once. It didn’t work!

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Do you have a CPA you recommend?

Hi. Here is the CPA I recommend and use. He speaks English. Rates are reasonable.