A inspection found that 32 of 50 contracts offered by 25 rental agencies across 10 administrative regions contravened regulations, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee said on Friday.
It ordered the rental agencies to correct their contracts as soon as possible.
This year was the first that the committee had inspected contracts offered by rental agencies in tandem with the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Land Administration and local governments’ land administration bureaus, committee official Chen Shih-yuan (陳世元) said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The Rental Housing Market Development and Regulation Act (租賃住宅市場發展及管理條例), which was promulgated in 2017, requires rental agencies to be registered with their local government.
Some of the contracts that breached the regulations set a longer rental time than was agreed to by the landlord, while some included clauses saying that the return of the unit would considered official even if the lessee was not present, Chen said.
Some of the contracts deferred down payments, despite the act specifying that down payments should be returned to the lessee upon the return of the unit, he said.
The lessor is obligated to repair, maintain or replace malfunctioning or broken equipment, and the lessee can, if the lessor agrees, repair or replace items, with the cost to be deducted from the rent or the lessor to pay, he added.
However, some contracts limited the lessee’s rights or reduced the lessor’s responsibility regarding malfunctioning or broken equipment, Chen said.
The committee also found that many of the contracts breached the law and infringed on lessee rights by stating that the lessor can unilaterally terminate the agreement while the lessee cannot, or stating that the lessee must forfeit their down payment — which is usually two months of rent — if they do not give the lessor a month’s notice before terminating the contract, he said.
Twenty-eight contracts — including some that were already signed — have been corrected, while four lessees were unwilling to make the changes, as they feel that the contracts favor them more, Chen said.
Department of Land Administration Director-General Liao Ching-an (廖慶安) said many forms that contravene the law adhere to previous practices, adding that the department would inspect contracts every year with local governments.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS