House of a Taiwanese man auctioned off by authority to pay off his wife

台灣男子的房子被法拍以償還妻子的ETC欠費

Man's wife had accumulated a total of NT$640,000 in unpaid ETC dues and license plate taxes


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A man’s house in Taiwan’s Nantou County was auctioned off by authorities on Tuesday (Jan. 4) to pay for his wife’s enormous electronic toll collection (ETC) dues.

The Administrative Enforcement Agency’s (AEA) Changhua Branch said in a press release on Friday (Jan. 7) that a 62-year-old man, surnamed Tseng (曾) who lived in Taichung, lent his car to his wife, surnamed Yu (余), in 2016. However, Yu had declined to pay for any taxes and fees the car incurred.

Yu had accumulated 2,262 ETC bills and fines as well as yearly license plate taxes from Aug. 2016 to May 2019, totaling NT$640,000 (US$23,040), the AEA branch said.

Hu Tian-ci (胡天賜), a spokesman for the branch, told media on Friday that Tseng lived in Taichung, but his car was registered under an address in Nantou, which caused Tseng to be unaware of the piling bills. According to the release, only after the branch began to collect the sum and gave the car owner a notification, did Tseng become aware that his wife had not been paying the ETC bills and taxes.

Angry at his wife for driving his car and not paying the dues, Tseng destroyed his car in 2019 to prevent his wife from continuing to drive his car and accumulate debts, the branch said.

According to the branch, as Tseng was also unwilling to pay off the dues after receiving the notification, the branch seized a two-story house of Tseng’s, which is located in Nantou’s Shuili Township in April 2019. The branch tried to auction the house twice from June 2020 to July 2021, but no one was interested in either auction.

The house was finally auctioned off for NT$1,228,800 at the third attempt on Jan. 4 this year. The branch will use the money to pay for the ETC fees and license plate taxes Tseng legally owed to the government and return the remainder to him.