Hi all.
I recently moved into a house that I am renting in central Tokyo.
The house that I moved into was previously an entire apartment building that was renovated into a house.
I’ve lived here for about 6 months and have had a couple of problems like rats in the walls which the management company paid for exterminators to come so no issue there.
Today the ALL OF THE CABINETS above the sink where I was doing dishes 30 minutes prior to this incident came crashing down out of the wall.
I don’t mean tiny little typical Japanese cabinets, I mean full on heavy cabinets came crashing down out of the wall above the sink.
Had they have come crashing out of the wall while I was doing dishes I would be dead right now.
(This is not an exaggeration it would have hit me in the head and I would be dead.)
I called the fire department right away because the cabinets had lighting systems in them and there were a lot of exposed wires of which I was afraid could start a fire.
The fire department came first to assess if it was a fire hazard (and the guys actually cleaned up all the broken glass and everything else that was broken in the process so…. way to go above and beyond!)
Then Tepco came about 30 minutes later to check the wires and tested them and said that they are not a fire hazard but cut them and taped them to the wall to be safe.
After that the real estate company came with get this…… a vacuum… to vacuum up all the plaster and debris of the hot mess that used to be my kitchen.
The owner of the property came to assess the damage and didn’t really talk to me. She was talking with the firefighters of which conversation I couldn’t catch as they put me in the corner of the room where I had to stand because the scene was too dangerous for me to be walking around.
The real estate company and the owner gave me a nice big old fashioned “moushiwake gozaimasen” and then left saying that the contractors (THE SAME CONTRACTORS THAT INSTALLED THE CABINETS ORIGINALLY) will be here tomorrow at 19:00 to install new cabinets.
It turns out that this contractor installed the cabinets by securing the cabinets to the wall through the foam like wood backing of the cabinets themselves and not into the wooden outline/casing of the cabinets thus not properly securing them to the wall.
I literally almost died tonight (again not an exaggeration.) I took photos and videos of the damage.
And I want to know if I have the right to sue over this for gross negligence of safety standards.
tl;dr: I moved into a house that I am renting. The cabinets above the sink fell out of the wall randomly and would have killed me had they have come crashing down while I was doing dishes 30 minutes prior. Do I have the right to sue?
11 comments
You can sue for anything. You won’t win anything but go ahead.
you want to sue them for injury that didn’t happen? doubt that shit would fly even in the US
>I literally almost died tonight
Unfortunately, that falls under the legal term speculation. Coulda woulda shoulda, but didn’t.
At best if your place is uninhabitable due to the maintenance required, you could demand prorated rent or hotel fees.
Did you have any personal items in the cabinet that broke? If they refuse to reimburse you, you can probably sue for damages. Aside from that, maybe emotional hardship? It’s a long shot, but you can sue if you want
You may ask the landlord to reimburse you for broken crockery/glasses that might have been inside or under the cabinets. Ideally with receipts and everything else as proof for their insurance.
But no other damage has been done, and you cannot sue for “potential” damages that “could” have happened. In fact, you didn’t suffer any loss, damage or expense, so no court will do anything for you.
And IANAL
What the fuck, that’s a close one dude! Jesus. you were lucky as hell. I mean, you didn’t get injured, so maybe just dust yourself off and thank the gods. I had a couple near deaths too. You can get them to run a safety check on the whole house from now as a minimum
Another day, another post where the best answer is “consult a lawyer” — so many free consultations available. Sorry you’re going through a tough moment, but the time spent writing this all down… just book a free consultation and if they think you have a case, you best believe they will gleefully try and get as much compensation as they can.
Just out of curiosity, how did you find your current place? Did you pay a deposit and key money?
Consult a lawyer. But in my opinion, your best option is bill them for the damaged dishes and also demand they ensure it’s installed safely.
If you have an official copy of the incident report, you can try to get your renter’s insurance to hear out an itemized claim of what was broken. Otherwise, you will have to consult with an attorney. You can try asking the housing agency or the contractor to pay for damages to your broken property, but they will likely say no. You can always publicly embarrass them if you have documentation about the incident. Sometimes that gets the ball rolling and they will pay for your broken dishes. They won’t pay for cuts or minor inconvenience. Japan doesn’t reward hurt feelings. You can only collect on damaged goods if you couldn’t collect insurance.
Next time don’t bother the fire department and cut the power ?