I’ve been busy seeking a room or studio to rent since arriving in Taipei 1+ week ago. Yesterday, I found a semi-studio that I thought would be a doable place for me. So the landlord (a Taiwanese man) and I agreed to sign the lease today. He specifically reminded me to bring my passport with me on the lease-signing day.
Then I thought he needed to verify my ID, but shouldn’t I have the same need to verify his ID and his relation to the rental property? So I ask the landlord to also show me his legal property papers and his personal ID card to prove that he is the bona fide owner of this rental property on the day we meet signing the lease. (By the way, I can speak, read and write Chinese.) He agreed. So I thought everything was fine and I was ready to sign the lease the following day.
Today, when we met to sign the lease, after I showed him my passport, he suddenly took his digital camera out of his bag and proceeded to take picture of my passport.
Now, this scared and surprised me. Never in my entire rental life had anybody taken pictures of my passport / ID for rental purpose. They would look at it to just make sure I look like the picture on my ID and my name matches who I claimed to be, but taking a picture…No. And this is just a small add-on, as nicely put-together as it may be, on the roof of a 5 story apartment building.
I got very nervous.
Another thing I was uncomfortable with was the property owner shown on the papers and their tax return was his wife’s name, instead of his. But the name of the landlord stated on the rental lease was his name. I understand this is a very common practice in the Chinese culture, but I’m not sure if that will adversely affect me should something go wrong later down the road after signing the lease?
So my first question is: is it necessary / legal for him to take a picture of my passport or make a xerox copy of my passport? Did you experience this before? And does it matter if his wife is the legal owner of the rental property when it is his name on the rental lease with me?
Now here’s the second question. I’ve also looked at two apartments, both with 3 bedrooms and all occupied by foreigners. And they told me the way things work with them is you pay rent to one of the 3 tenants in the apartment every month then this tenant deposits it to the invisible landlord’s bank account. But nobody is subletting and you never see the landlord. And when you move out, you’re obligated to find a new tenant to fill the room to get your deposit back. I’d like to know if this is a common practice in Taipei within the foreigners’ community? And if so, when I first move in, what documents am I required to show them? Do they have to make copies of my documents etc etc…
Basically, what’s the proper protocol when signing a rental lease on both situations mentioned above?
Thank you.