‘I was paying off his loan’: Taiwan woman pays rent for 10 years then discovers boyfriend owns flat after he dumps her
- Woman says she never saw a lease agreement or landlord and when she wanted to move out he talked her out of it
- Truth revealed after boyfriend dumps her and she finds bank letter to him about mortgage
A woman in Taiwan who thought she was splitting her rent for 10 years with her boyfriend before he ended the relationship has discovered that he was the homeowner and said she was unwittingly used to repay his entire mortgage.
In a post on mainland social media the woman revealed that the couple had been in a relationship for 20 years and rented a flat together after her boyfriend insisted it was more cost-effective than buying property.
The woman said her boyfriend then seemed to instantly find their current flat with three bedrooms and one bathroom with a monthly rent of NT$28,000 (US$900), which they split evenly despite never seeing a lease agreement or any documentation for the rental amount.
She said that she only saw the person she was led to believe was the homeowner once. Whenever something in the flat needed fixing it was done by a tradesperson.
“When I contacted the supposed owner he told me that because he owns multiple properties, he hires external contractors to handle repairs. This is quite common in the rental industry, so I didn’t suspect anything,” she said.
Her boyfriend also reassured her by saying: “Our homeowner really values tenant privacy, and he lives far away, so he won’t come unless it’s necessary.”
The rent payment process was also suspicious in retrospect.
Her boyfriend would give the “owner” the money after she paid her share to him. He also claimed that the owner’s address was close to his work, so it was easier for him to deal with him directly and claimed he was worried that the owner might try and date her if she met him.