TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A landlord in Taichung has sued a foreign tenant after she failed to pay rent for five months and converted five rental properties into 11 sublets.

In May last year, a woman surnamed Tseng (曾) rented out the four-story apartment building on Liren 4th Road in Taichung City's Dali District to a foreign woman surnamed Chang (張), reported ETtoday. The contract was signed for five years and the monthly rent was set at NT$21,000 (US$661).

However, Chang changed the layout without authorization and divided five rentals into 11 rooms and sublet them to fellow countrymen, earning NT$55,000 per month. She not only continued to use the utilities such as water and electricity but also changed the locks, preventing Tseng from entering the apartments.

Chang also failed to pay Tseng five months of rent. When Tseng realized that the property that she had purchased for more than NT$10 million had been occupied by unauthorized subtenants and its layout changed beyond recognition, she decided to file a lawsuit against Chang demanding that she return the property.

Tseng stated that it had been a year since she had been able to enter the property. Concerned that the cheap wiring installed by Chang would endanger the lives of the neighbors, Tseng said she did not ask Chang to restore the property to its original state, and the five months in back rent would be ignored as long as she would vacate the premises quickly.

However, Chang is the foreign spouse of a Taiwanese citizen and does not live in the house at all, but actually lives elsewhere. Since a court verdict in Tseng's favor was handed down, Chang has refused to respond to phone calls, prompting Tseng to petition for a warrant of distraint.

Chang then suddenly surfaced complaining that the court's judgment represented unfair discrimination against a foreign spouse and filed an appeal. Tseng will need to wait for the court's final verdict to be released before she can apply for a warrant to seize her properties back.