Oh, you’re actually leaving the place. Good for you.
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Wife just read through this topic, and checked the laws since I was also curious . She said it’s legal to have a camera in the common areas of a shared house/apartment, but it’s illegal to have it pointed at your room, and also said that @Marco’s lawyer didn’t clarify this. Anyway, if this is also legal feel free to correct me
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Ill ask again tomorrow.
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Yea. I left the business card in this topic a few posts up.
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I feel like that would be a much better reason to see a lawyer. Usually, you need some damages or something monetary to see a judge. The camera might or might not be relevant about this - be sure to take some pictures of it if you plan to see a lawyer so you have proof that it was actually there…
The main reason is that the contract says I need to tell the landlord one month in advance that I’m leaving the place when the contract ends. But the contract was in Chinese and I forgot to checked until today and realized that. So I told her today that I’m leaving; my contract ends in three weeks. She said I would have to pay an extra month from my deposit because of this breach of contract. The thing is that I could actually terminate the contract today because my room has no internet even though it stated I would have internet, also that someone would come to clean the house every week, which also did not happen. I told her about this, but then the camera came to mind and wonder if it could also be relevant.
Maybe there’s really nothing I can do
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Man, I hate landlords.
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I remember someone said their best experience renting an apartment here was when the owner was a foreigner.
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My last landlord and the current landlord have been great. Neither of them even have keys to the flat.
As a landlord(technically), I’ve left the tenant alone. I know I’ll be renovating the place anyways.
Yes. I’m a landlord that has a landlord.
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yes it is shared there are 4 other rooms. I have my own room and only my room is being directed by a camera. By this I mean my room door. The bathroom is outside so I have to get out to shower and I feel uncomfortable because every time I get out I feel watched. I am the only foreigner in the apartment.
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turn the camera towards the wall. or hang washing from it. do not damage the camera at all, though.
Hey, I was at least trying to clarify the situation and figure out details! (A camera in a shared living area is quite different from one in a private apartment.)
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I’m pretty sure this is NOT legal!!! and outright creepy and you still moved in??? Was it the cheap rent, great location & place or “foreigners find it very hard to find an apartment to rent” that made you want to rent this place? You need to tell your landlord to take them down or you go and put black tape over the lens on all of those cameras.
Edit: I replied right after reading your first post and didn’t scroll down to read the rest of the topic where you clarified your position on why you rented this place. My apologies!!!
I’ve rented many apartments in my time living here in Taiwan and not once has any landlord/landlady put a camera “inside” the apartment that I’ve rented (be it a single apartment or a shared apartment)…There was one exception though, where a landlord turned a huge apartment (around 60~70 pings) into 4 smaller units so he can rent out to 4 tenants and he put cameras in the hallway that leads to the main entrance. Since this is a public space (公共空間), he had the right to install them but he did not put cameras inside the 4 apartments. Now this might be a slight grey area where your landlord can claim that the living room is 公共空間 but you can always argue that since you guys are living “inside” that space, he should remove them and just place them outside the main door. All landlords that I’ve rented from do not even enter our apartment on their own unless they’ve made a prior appointment with me.
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WTH??? So using this logic, the landlord can put a camera inside my bedroom and watch me getting spanked using a leather whip by a dominatrix?? 
Jokes aside, maybe your lawyer misunderstood your question? Maybe he thought the landlord put the camera outside the main entrance? Can you ask him if a camera is allowed inside one’s bedroom? Just curious…very curious in fact.
Will clarify later today!
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It seems not so uncommon in Asia. The first time that I was looking for a room in Singapore, I was shocked to see cameras inside of one of the first flats that I viewed. I left on the spot (and remembered from that moment on to always ask beforehand), but out of curiosity I contacted the Housing Board to ask whether this practice is legal or not. The reply was that it is. Renting a room in a shared flat is like booking a hotel room: whatever is outside of it is considered common area that the tenant might be authorised to use (if the landlord allows for it - kitchens are often off-limits in Singapore, as funny as it might sound) but that ultimately belongs to the landlord. Toilets apart, cameras can be installed and point anywhere.
I guess the situation in Taiwan is similar.
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The Chinese newspaper is pretty random. And it turns out to be a pro-China newspaper lol.
Reading more about it, it seems all foreign Chinese-language newspapers are now pro-CCP. That is sad.
Questions for the lawyer:
If it is illegal for the landlord to enter the house you are renting without permission, why is the camera thinghy OK? It would be as if the landlord was standing there inside the whole time…
We need clarification: is it only for common shared areas and if so, under what circumstances? Shouldn’t all tenants agree and have access to the tapes, for instance, if someone’s food goes missing from the common fridge? Then, how can the landlord claim he does not know who checks this? How is the record kept then and for how long? Again: who has access to viewing the cameras?