We are detecting high levels of sarcasm, captain.
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The dealer would be slowly lowered into a bath of Acid until he provided shipment . Different worlds have different rules.
No sarcasm whatsoever. I was agreeing with Super.
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Just mention the tax office and you’ll almost certainly get your deposit back。
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True … but he was talking about a small time buyer for personal use that can’t do shit.
Obviously Walter White won’t be pleased
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Yeah I know what he means. Like a small time buyer cant do anything to the dealer because his drugs weren’t quality.
This thread is good info. I hate contracts. It’s like a snare to catch a rabbit. It’s a pity they couldn’t be beneficial to all parties. I miss the day when your word was “good” The days when "I give you my word ", meant something.
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I’ll have to disagree with you here, Your Highness.
OP had signed a contract and, therefore, agreed with the clauses this contract contains.
Now, when it’s OP’s turn to act on his part of the deal, they should push for the landlord to return their deposit by keeping the keys?
Even if the clause is unfair, this had to be discussed when signing the contract, not when rescinding it. If OP didn’t read this part before signing it, is their fault, not landlord’s.
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Yeah, the landlord could have offered a lower rent up front based on this condition.
What I wonder is if the clause was written in Chinese? If the OP couldn’t read it that’s an out right there. You can’t agree to what you can’t read
Unfortunately, that can’t be an excuse…
That’s why you can see in most (if not all) Forumosa topics that mention contract, someone points out that you should have a local with you whenever you have to sign a contract.
Not only because they can read all the details, but also because they can help to negotiate, if needed.
It’s an excuse in most countries. Taiwan I don’t know.
Case in point a company i worked for in the past used to do contracts over the phone with people. We had many Indian and Chinese clients that would call in and not understand a word of English and we would still put the contract through as long as they said yes.
They were all able to escape the contract terms with a good lawyer as you can’t contract something that which you can’t read. There is no meeting of the minds, a requirement of a binding contract
Be so kind as to show us the new law.
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Agree I’ve seen mostly heresay on this thread, and confrontational advice.
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(not related to quoted post) if a person reads the contract thoroughly and are willing to sign, but has no intention of following it and even asks for ways to get out of it then that’s a dishonest person from the get go or possibly just desperate. However , the original poster says he just didn’t see or notice the clause. No way in my life would I sign a contract making me responsible to find a new tenant after my contract expires. That’s usually what an agent does (finding a new tenant) unless I was given very cheap rent or such like.
You must be joking.
Of course it is in Chinese! This is Taiwan! Only a daft person would go to another country and demand or expect things to be exactly as they are back home.
You don’t get an out just because you can’t read the language. That makes it twice as dumb to sign something you don’t understand and don’t know the language.
To fault the landlord for using Chinese is ridiculous.
Sure you can and he did, by blindly signing a contract.
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Removed my reply as what I was saying was based on lower case law and is wrong. Looks like the higher courts in the States overturned that interpretation. Again Taiwan follows the beat of its own drum for law
“party’s signature on a contract, provided it was not acquired through fraud, deceit or undue influence, is prima facie evidence that the contract contains that party’s intention”
That’s true I agree, and often they have a contract in English and Chinese with a clause written something like (if there is a disagreement with the interpretation of the contract the Chinese contract takes precedent).
This is obviously one reason that Landlords may favor locals in renting. Some is just outright racism, but now I can see there are other factors like foreigners saying “Well I couldn’t read the contract in your country in your native language therefore it doesn’t count”. However if they made English the official second language (maybe it already is) then perhaps a new law requiring an English version alongside the Chinese version might be useful in Taipei , Taichung …; outside those areas though forget it.
Citibank in Taiwan requires you to be able to read the Chinese contract in its entirety or you don’t get an account. They don’t want any hassle with people claiming they didn’t understand.
As far as rentals landlords refuse because people tell them that foreigners will trash their apartments and sometimes that is true
Loud music and African drums, chanting mantras and the smell of burning green tea leaves, surely not !
The principle of X is the minimum legal standard, and to hell with contracting out of X exists in Taiwan, though it’s not always straightforward.
(Compare the Basic Wage: in most cases, a labor contract giving the worker less than the BW would be in violation of the law ergo the employer must pay the full BW, but in some cases funny math is allowed, and not everyone who works is a “worker”.)
The landlord is responsible for knowing the law. If the landlord knows or ought to know that a clause is unenforceable, it’s unenforceable, and to hell with contracting out of it. That said, I don’t know if the clause in question here is enforceable or not, but just because you sign something, that doesn’t mean it’s binding.
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