I stupidly missed this fine print in my contract. I have 3 weeks left until the end of my 6-month rental contract and have had no problems. However, my landlord told me this just a few days ago and said that he could do it because it was in my contract. Usually this wouldn’t be a big problem, because I live in an area with a ton of people moving in. However, it’s summer vacation now and few people want to move in August 1st, when I move out. It will be very difficult to find someone to take my apartment, and I will also feel obliged to tell them about this requirement, which I wasn’t told about orally by my landlord when renting the place.
Is this legal and enforceable? If so, I still have one option- staying 4 more weeks until the fall semester begins, when it will be easy to find a new tenant.
Never heard of it… only time I heard of something similar is if you leave before the contract ends and didn’t find a replacement.
otherwise, once the contract ends, as long as there is no damage and the bills ate paid u should get the deposit.
Whenever I have encountered landlords with sticky fingers vis a vis deposits I just dont give the keys back until I get the deposit back. Worked every time for me.
I have no idea about Taiwan, but in common law legal systems the “you signed the contract, therefore it’s not illegal” argument is bogus. Rather it works the other way, if a term in the contract is illegal, then you aren’t bound by the contract, or at least the bits that term refers to. I would think there would be a ton of real estate laws that would override anything you decide to put in a contract, specifically to do with when a landlord must return the bond deposit. Fortunately I’m not a Taiwanese lawyer, so I don’t know.
Well, there you go.
This isn’t Kansas anymore.
Welcome to Taiwan.
It doesn’t negate the entire contract.
Also, the agreement to supply a replacement tenant is not illegal.
Unless the OP can prove they signed the contract under duress or was directly mislead about that particular agreement, then the OP is out their deposit.
The burden of proof is in the OP and fighting it really would not be worth the time, effort and money.
I would suggest the OP discuss their concerns with the landlord and try to work something out. Otherwise, just chalk it up to a lesson learned. Read everything before you sign.
Yea, and they have to wait two months after you stop paying rent before they can legally do it too. In my experience the tactic of saying hand over the deposit, or meet again in a months time to talk about it again works.
That’s easy for any lock smith , literally maximum of 3 minutes unless they have some heavily reinforced locks installed for your safety which I doubt. Then they can also charge you for the expense on top of the deposit.
I’ve signed contracts before that have illegal clauses knowing full well they can’t be enforced. When I was a kid I signed a gym membership at 16 and forgot to cancel it . Got a call a year later saying that I owned them $500 as it was in the contract and if I didn’t pay they would sue. I said go ahead you signed an unenforceable contact with a minor. Have fun with that
A law teacher used an example when I was a kid… you signed a written contract for drugs and your dealer jipped you on the shipment, can you sue him? Good luck