Landlord sold the apartment, 4 years left on lease.

Legal Legal - Real Estate & Housing
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Hi all, thanks in advance for your help!

I’ve been living in this apartment in Kaohsiung for 5 years now, and last year my landlord (who currently lives in Canada) came back to resign the lease (for another 5 years) but also told me that the apartment has been put up for sale “but don’t worry, we’ll try to find owners who will continue to rent to you.”

Well, lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago, she sent me a message saying that the apartment has been sold, the new owners don’t want to rent it to me, and I have two months to move out.

After talking to some other expats who have dealt with similar situations, I would really like to know your advice on how to deal with this situation. What are my rights here? Does the lease automatically become null and void when the ownership is transferred? Does the landlord have the right to tell me I have two months, or do they have to honor the 5 year lease?

Thanks!

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In most reasonable cases selling the house doesn’t change anything, you just pay rent to the new landlord. They still have to honor the lease unless they back out by paying you.

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You have the choice to stay until your lease ends or negotiate a compensation with new owners if you are willing to move out earlier.
New owners should have known this when buying leased property.

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yes

Civil Code

Article 425
A lease continues to exist to the transferee notwithstanding the lessor transfers the ownership of the thing leased to a third party after the lessor delivered the thing leased and the lessee has possessed such thing.
The provisions of preceding paragraph shall not apply to a lease of real property without notarizing, the period exceeding five years or an indefinite period.

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Looks like your landlord is trying to take advantage of you not being familiar with your rights.

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Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. Much appreciated.

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Maybe you could look into these free legal consultation things. They have them in Taipei, organized by the city hall or whoever, and they seem to have them in Kaohsiung too.

https://news.immigration.gov.tw/NewsSection/Detail/b29ebce7-a280-45ef-9326-694d27cda08c?lang=EN

Just to get a better idea of your rights and any additional laws covering it before discussing things with your landlord.

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Is the lease notarized?

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if the period is not exceeding five years, it doesn’t need to be notarized.

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You need to check the lease conditions. Usually there are some kind of cancellation provisions/conditions.

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The law in most places is that just because the house is sold doesn’t mean the lease is invalid. The sale is immaterial, the rent check just goes to the new owner.

So the new owner will have to apply cancellation provision, which means he must break the lease and pay the penalty (usually 1 month rent).

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12

Ask for a 5 year cancellation fee transferred to your bank account and you’ll move out

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