Long story short, after signing a lease and my realtor acting as a guarantor on a two year lease I had to leave Taiwan due to a severe deterioration in my health.
My guarantor is now asking for me to pay $4,000USD for the cost of cleaning and other fees related to the apartment. I am currently unable to work, living in the US while I seek care for an undetermined neurological condition.
I would like to return to Taiwan and continue working but I’m unsure what action could be taken if I go back. I understand what I did was really dumb and wrong but I had no choice in the matter as I couldn’t even work to support myself.
You might be better off continuing this in your other thread a couple of days ago, because the context seems important.
4k USD sounds excessive (to me) for what you described there though, especially if they already took your two-month deposit (as I presume they did). Did they give you a breakdown/explanation of those costs? How much was your rent?
I also think it would be helpful to clarify the specifics of your realtor acting as guarantor - that seems really unusual to me. I can’t see what would be in that for a professional realtor…
It sounds like you had an understandable reason for leaving how you did (not sure what that counts for legally, though). If you’ve explained that and your financial situation to the person trying to get 4k USD out of you and they don’t care…I wouldn’t personally be trying to rush back to Taiwan until you can negotiate something (much) more reasonable.
It was entirely in Mandarin and one you could buy in any stationary shop. I had only been in the country about 10 months at that point working in a buxiban.
I couldn’t find anyone to act as a guarantor and based on the recommendation of a manager of the buxiban I was working at, she agreed to act as my guarantor for a two year lease. I paid $45,600NT upfront including rent, deposit, and the realtor fee. I stayed for 3 months. It was $13,000NT a month rent.
All the information I have now after some clarification is she’s asking for $60,000NT ($2,000USD), as they’ve only just been informed I’ve left the country.
I would like to return to Taiwan in April or so but wasn’t sure how that would work.
Presumably you have a copy? Get Google Translate on it. The typical premature termination involves loss of deposit but no other penalties. Frankly, what they’re asking sounds in the right ballpark … assuming it will be taken from your initial deposit.
So the NT$45.6k sounds like 1 month’s rent, 2 month’s deposit, and half a month’s commission for the realtor - is that about right?
For the three months you stayed, were you up to date on your rent? Like you paid an additional two months in addition to the first month above, yeah?
How much stuff did you leave? Asking for an additional 4.5 months rent at this point does still seem excessive. Or is some of that for time between you leaving and now when the apartment was unrentable?
The guarantor probably shouldn’t have taken on that financial risk for a stranger tbh. You’d think they’d have known that being a realtor.
Interesting. I thought the standard lease document for Taiwan stated that you would lose just your deposit (2 months rent) if you left suddenly. This seems more than reasonable to me. 4k USD is nuts.
I don’t have the copy, I left a lot of stuff in the apartment. My wife did all the packing and didn’t know what to take or not, we left behind a lot of important documents like my high school diploma and entry documents for her. I wasn’t mentally able to even take care of myself which is why we had to come back to the states.
She’s saying they only just found out I left, so they’re asking for rent to cover September, October, and November which is about $52K, and cleaning plus utilities which total about $8K. I left August 9th, and had paid in full for May, June, July, and August. Since I paid the first months rent plus 2 months, and then all of Augusts rent.
I should have let her know I left but I ended up having to go through massive medical interventions through the rest of August and September coming back to the states. I couldn’t even feed myself, let alone remember everything I needed to do about what I left in Taiwan. I’m barely getting back to being semi stable and trying to plan to go back once I’m in a better place but I’m worried what could happen if I go back.
It really boils down to when you gave notice that you will be moving out. If you didn’t do that in August or did it just now, you might indeed also be liable for rent for the last three months.
Understood. If it comes down to it then maybe I can set it up if I move back in a timely manner. I do want to do it right because I feel terrible about it. Lots of bad decisions, under extreme duress, but bad nonetheless.
Thank you. I can connect with her if I get a job I applied for and see what repayment options would be reasonable.