I just paid a booking fee to reserve an apartment I found and asked for the contract to look at before signing it.
I have a question about the part of the rental contract dealing with early lease termination which I’m hoping someone can help me with, as the landlord has not yet replied to me.
First, my understanding is that if you terminate your lease early, and give thirty day’s notice, the Landlord is entitled to keep one month of your two month’s deposit. But the contract I received does not specify anything about the deposit, or whether one month’s deposit will be returned. Instead it says this:
“The Tenant may terminate this agreement before the expiry of the term by written notice to this effect to the landlord at least thirty (30) days before the date stated in such notice to be the date on which such termination takes effect; provided that the tenant shall pay to the landlord an amount equal to the sum of ___ months’ rentals to compensate the landlord’s loss and damage arising from such termination.”
This makes it sound to me like not only does the landlord not make himself responsible for returning one month’s deposit, but intends to charge additional months rent on top of keeping the full two months deposit if I break the lease early.
Has anyone seen this in their own contract before who could clarify what this implies and how I might best respond to the situation?
I am not supposed to move until May 1st. So the landlord told me other people were interested in the apartment - but he would hold it for me if I paid the fee.
My understanding is that it’s an advance payment on the rent, yes. It was half the month’s rent.
I’m in Taipei and I’ve seen the place and talked to the landlord. I’m staying at a monthly rental place right now and am intending to move into this new place in May.
I think it is a template rental contract from 7-11 ? You can go to 7-11 to get a template and see what that says. The ___ months is probably blank and to be filled in later. Just discuss and agree to write “1” there.
So far everything seems above board, nothing weird that I can tell.
I’d feel better if the contract clearly stated one month’s deposit would be returned to the tenant, and the other month’s retained by the landlord. Can I request to modify the language of the contract or do you think that’s unnecessary?
Also, browsing previous threads on this forum I’ve found a few people saying that there are new rules under which full amount of deposit should be returned so long as 30 day’s notice is given. Is this accurate?
your contract should say if you can terminate the contract at will.
if it says you can, full amount of deposit should be returned so long as 30 day’s notice is given, and the penalty when the notice period is shorter than 1 month should not exceed 1 month rent.
if it says you can’t, you should pay till the end of the contract, unless landload agrees on the early termination with whatever condition both of you agree.
in cases with some special reasons in the new rule, you can terminate the contract without any penalty, regardless of the avobe.
1 month penalty for early termination is standard, and usually deducted from your deposit.
I’d also recommend to make this work both ways:if the landlord asks you to leave (e.g. he wants to give the place to his daughter) , he should pay you 1 month compensation. Our contract is phrased this way and i feel its fair.
downpayment deductible from rent : i did the same with the agent that showed me the apartment, it was documented and i even got a receipt, so not always a red flag.
In my contract there is only one paragraph dealing with early termination and I quoted it above in my original post in full. Do you have a link to a newer type of contract that uses more favorable language? I am thinking I could propose to the landlord to modify that clause of the contract, and see what stance he takes on this - although I’m a bit concerned because I already made and down payment on the place (1/2 month’s rent) and doubt he’d return it now if there’s a disagreement over the contract.
My other concern is that if you read the paragraph above that I quoted dealing with early termination, it doesn’t even mention what happens if the tenant terminate the contract without 30 day’s notice. This is what I will most likely need to do if I leave early, either because of a family emergency back home, or because I find a vastly superior apartment for a similar price - in either of those cases I won’t be able to wait 30 days to move out.
The way the contract is worded above, though the language is a bit opaque, it makes it sound like I must give AT LEAST 30 days notice for early termination, and even in that case need to compensate the landlord with (one) month’s rent.
Article 13 Arbitrary termination of this Contract
Other than the premature termination of the Contract as provided in Articles 16 and 17, the Parties □ may / □ shall not terminate this Contract prior to the expiry of the Contract.
Where a premature termination of the Contract arises as provided, either party of the Parties shall give a one-month advance notice to the other party. Failing to provide such an advance notice, the party terminating the Ageement straight shall compensate the other party up to one-month rent as a penalty.
Where the Lessee shall compensate the penalty as set forth in the preceding paragraph may be taken to discharge from the security deposit as provided in Paragraph 1 of Article 4. If the deposit is deficient for the owing deduction, the Lessor shall be entitled to request the Lessee to pay for the shortfall.
Upon terminating the Contract under the conditions set forth in Paragraph 1 hereof, the Lessor shall refund the rent collected in advance to the Lessee.
Your contract also should say on deposit.
Article 4 Security deposit agreement and refund
The Parties agree that the security deposit shall be -month rent, totaling NT$_______ (not greater than the total amount of two-month rent). The Lessee shall pay such deposit to the Lessor upon execution of this Contract.
Upon expiry of the lease period or termination of the Contract, unless
otherwise under the circumstances of rent deductions as set forth in Paragraph 4 of Article 11, Paragraph 3 of Article 13, Paragraph 4 of Article 14, and Paragraph 2 of Article 18, the Lessor shall refund the security deposit set forth in the preceding paragraph or the net deposit, after deduction of debts incurred under the Contract, to the Lessee upon the surrender of the Premises by the Lessee.
Thanks for letting me know your experience also making a down payment - good to know it’s not a red flag. My only concern now is that if we don’t agree on a point of the contract he may keep the 1/2 month’s rent I gave him.
Article 249
Unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties, the following rules apply to the earnest money:
(1) When the contract has been performed, the earnest money shall be returned or treated as one part of the payment.
(2) If the contract cannot be performed owing to a circumstance to which the party who gave the earnest money is imputed, such party shall not claim for the return of the earnest money.
(3) If the contract cannot be performed owing to a circumstance to which the party who received the earnest money is imputed, such party shall return double amounts of earnest money.
(4) If the contract cannot be performed owing to a circumstance to which neither of the parties is imputed, the earnest money shall be returned.
Thanks for this! The language in this new contract is much clearer and also seems more fair and balanced toward the tenant.
How would it be viewed, in the local culture, if I propose to the landlord that we use this newer contract instead, rather than the one he gave me, after explaining my reasons for doing so? I’m not sure if it would be taken badly and lead to conflict?
Hmm, interesting… I would think this situation falls under number 4… but it sounds to me like if I decline to sign the contract because of disagreement over the early termination clause, he could claim number 2 and keep my money?
They now should use the new version of the contract. using the old version is illegal, and they should not refuse to use the new version.
According to the provisions of the Consumer Protection Law, if the content of the signed lease violates the items that cannot be recorded, the violation part is invalid; if the items that should be recorded are not specified in the lease, they are still considered to constitute the content of the contract. If the lessor refuses, it may submit a report to the local land administration agency and the consumer protection unit. If the correction is still not made within a time limit, a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 may be imposed according to law.
Ask to get newest copy of contract from 7-11. This is pretty standard. You can even go to 7 to ask for a contract on your own. Then, if you want to make changes to that contract, strike things through and amend them at the bottom.
Great to know! So it seems that there are actually many provisions that are not allowed in contracts.
I’ve found that the foreigner-oriented rental agencies (the ones that take half a months’ rent as fee) tend to use their own contracts with a lot of unfavorable, weird, or probably illegal clauses that clash with the government one. The one from the government that you linked above and that is available at 7-11 are probably the best. I’m starting to doubt the value of a lot of these rental agencies now (of course, they have their own interests…)