Taipei Councilor Slams Rental System Over Tenant Safety, Harassment Fears

Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua has criticized the city's rental system, highlighting a critical gap in tenant safety and a lack of clear procedures for handling sexual harassment incidents.

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The current system has regulations for rent, deposits, repairs, and contract performance, but lacks guarantees for personal safety after moving in and mechanisms for handling sexual harassment incidents, creating a loophole in the system.

During a council meeting, Hsu detailed a case where a tenant experienced repeated sexual harassment from a building manager between July and August. Despite reporting the incidents to the rental management company and the building committee, the tenant received no support. The situation escalated when the tenant filed a police report on August 8, yet the manager remained on duty, leaving the tenant afraid to return home for nearly a month while still paying rent and management fees.

Hsu questioned the definition of "professionalism" for government-certified rental service providers, arguing it should extend beyond rent, contracts, and repairs to include tenant safety. She stressed the need for clear complaint channels, standard operating procedures for handling harassment claims, and defined roles for building committees, especially when the alleged perpetrator is a building manager.

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What does the government-certified 'professionalism' include? Is it only rent, contracts, and repairs, but not residents' personal safety?

While acknowledging this case falls under private rental management rather than public housing, Hsu insisted that the city must set basic safety standards. She called for inter-departmental cooperation to ensure tenant safety, suggesting measures like temporary isolation of parties during investigations and incorporating sexual harassment response into the evaluation criteria for rental service providers. The city government pledged to provide administrative guidance and ensure that companies failing to meet these standards will not have their contracts renewed.

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This case, although within the scope of private rental management, does not mean it is a no-man's-land for the city government. It's not that the city has to handle everything that happens with private operators, but since a rental management system has been established, basic safety management standards should also be set.