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.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS