-I moved to Taiwan, and the institution I am with as a teacher found housing for me. I didn’t have a choice.
-As time went on, it became clear that the location wasn’t suitable, the landlord was pretty crazy (she would just show up and stay in the house on some weekends), we were overpaying, etc. A lot of problems with the apartment, but none that would allow us to break the contract scott-free.
We decide to move out and break the contract, and now the landlord is demanding that she will take our entire deposit, which was 2 months rent (over $30,000 NTD).
I’ve talked to a lot of Taiwanese friends (including a landlord), and they all say that its insane. They say that you only have to pay 1 months rent if you break a housing contract in Taiwan.
However, the landlord is pointing to the contract, which is the standard contract you get from stationary stores. It says that she can “keep our deposit” if we break the contract with no mention of how many months, but its very vague and standard.
So, who is in the wrong here? Am I going to have to just lose my entire 2 month deposit, or should she be giving me one month back?
-I moved to Taiwan, and the institution I am with as a teacher found housing for me. I didn’t have a choice. [/quote]
Who signed the contract? You or your employer for you?
[quote=“TheMixer”] - I’ve talked to a lot of Taiwanese friends (including a landlord), and they all say that its insane. They say that you only have to pay 1 months rent if you break a housing contract in Taiwan.
However, the landlord is pointing to the contract, which is the standard contract you get from stationary stores. It says that she can “keep our deposit” if we break the contract with no mention of how many months, but its very vague and standard. [/quote]
What matters is what you signed. What does the contract say about cancelling before the lease is up and giving due notice? How many weeks/months due notice does the contract specify? I won’t go to 7-11 to purchase a sample contract so please post the exact clauses here.
As was mentioned, it depends on what your contract says. If you’re curious as to whether 2 months rent is excessive, the last two places I rented had that exact same lease breaking penalty, but if my landlord wanted me to leave before the lease was up then he owed me 4 months rent (again, as per the contract)
I can’t speak from a legal or Taiwanese perspective, but from a perspective of what is reasonable and what isn’t, 2 months rent doesn’t seem excessive to me at all to break a contract of this nature.
I think in general they can take the deposit for breaking the contract, but in practice most landlords don’t. Obviously this is all dependent upon the language in the contract. One thing that you could do is possibly helping the landlord find a replacement tenant. But if she’s crazy, then I don’t know if that’s something you want to do to the next guy.