My wife and I lived in an apartment in Tokyo for over 5 years before moving nearby in March. We received a bill for repairs and cleaning for ¥256,000, which was a pretty shocking. When we asked for the breakdown (which wasn’t offered originally) the cleaning fee was ¥178,500 or ¥1,500/sqm.
We just found the range listed in our translated lease contract is 1000-1200/sqm, but we were just told that was just an approximate range and that the price reflects increasing labor costs (which is 25% percent over the top of the range, btw!).
We referred our friends who live there now, which isn’t related except I’m really annoyed they’re not giving us any breaks for helping them find a tenant.
So… TLDR; I’m starting to feel like I’m being extorted on the cleaning fee. When we challenged it they reminded us we had cats, which was part of the agreement, and we’re already paying for wallpaper damages from them. Our agent originally told us all the wallpaper would be replaced regardless.
Thoughts on how we might be able to convince the property managers to (at least) charge the cleaning fee based on the original range? So far we’ve been very respectful but the tone of the replies are changing.
Thank you!
by 3030vision