After much consideration, I feel the best course of action would be the following:
Have a mutual friend or your best buddy here in Taiwan attempt to make contact with her and see if she is open and willing to have the things returned to your friend for you. Your friend can make it clear that you totally accept the break up, that there are no hard feelings on your part whatsoever, but that you would just like your personal property and money returned.
If she denies having your personal property or money, then youâre in a tough spot. Best at this point to write everything off as a valuable lesson learned. You see, if she denies it then it becomes a he said, she said thingy and most likely nothing will come of it. Even if you report it to the police somehow or file a lawsuit against her all she needs to do is deny it. There is no probable cause for the court to issue a search warrant and have the police go to her apartment and toss it looking for your stuff. Lastly, sheâs here and your not and sheâs Taiwanese and youâre just a foreigner.
If she admits to holding your property and/or admits to having your money and refusing to return them, then you might have a legal case against her. But, it will need to be an email or a LINE text or something where she totally says something like, âFuck you, Iâm keeping your money and your documents until you come across with more money to pay your fair share of the apartment and utilities, etc. etc.â Highly unlikely that sheâll put herself in such a position, but you never know. And if you have a legal case against her, youâll probably have to come back to Taiwan and deal with it in person.
So, after writing all this out and considering the possibilities, if I were you Iâd just write it off and move on with my life.
How much money are we talking about after all? $100k NTD? Write it off.
3 million TWD? Come back to Taiwan and take proper action to recoup your money.
Do you have evidence of her owing you this money and having your important documents? If not, then itâs all a waste of time. Unless sheâs trying to blackmail you into giving her more money for the documents. If this is the case, then make sure you keep track of every communication you have with her.
Or gave it to her to pay your share of the rent and expenses?
You need to have something concrete where she acknowledges the money is yours, that she understands that she has no rights to it and that she intends to keep it anyway (steal).
I donât see anyway of winning this my brother. Sorry.
True. But why hold on to his documents? Theyâre worthless to her. Unless she wants something in return or there is more to the story that we donât know about.
I donât know what types of records you have, but you were supposed to declare the amount of foreign currencies in excess of $10,000 USD (or its equivalent in other foreign currencies) when you brought the money into Taiwan. I am hesitant to suggest contacting the foreign affairs police for help if you hadnât declared that money, as it can be forfeited.
He did not say he brought the money in did he? Maybe he saved it by working in Taiwan?
Or maybe he wired the money in through a bank transfer. or withdrew it over time using an ATM card. Nothing stated he brought that amount in by carrying cash.
Ok. If you have concrete evidence that she has your documents and is willing to return them, then perhaps you have something to work with. As someone else already stated though, you need to do a cost benefit analysis. Is the amount of time, money and energy you have to devote to getting these documents back going to be worth it? If not, just walk away from this nightmare and chalk it up to a hard lesson learned.
I asked whether he brought in cash earlier, but he did not answer my question, thus my further explanation as to why I asked that question in the first placeâŚ
If donât have money for a lawyer and you speak Chinese or donât speak Chinese and have friends who can help⌠you can file without an expensive lawyer (I know an admin said not to suggest it⌠but since it is at least an option)
Take it as a hard earned lesson (which is what I personally would opt for if itâs anything less than 10,000usd) - anything over and Iâd do a serious cost/benefit analysis