I need advice about a problem with an apartment I just moved i to

tl;dr version:

My roommate and I wanted to rent an apartment together, saw one we liked in really bad condition, the real estate agent said we are viewing it before cleaning and just after the previous tenant moved out but it will be cleaned before we move in, apartment was not cleaned or repaired – we want to complain, what can we do?

Full version:

So, my roommate and I decided to move closer to Tokyo centre because of commuting time, and we were looking at apartments around mid-December. We saw a few apartments, but were turned down for all of them because of being foreigners. Finally, we saw one at a decent location, with lots of potential, but pretty run down. When we came to visit the apartment for the first time, as evidenced by the agent who was accompanying us, the apartment had major damage – a hole in the room doors and in the doors of one of the closets, the floor boards were somewhat loose, the wallpaper was torn and peeling, the cushion flooring had many scuff marks and burn marks, etc. The agent also said that we are viewing the apartment before cleaning and restoration, because at that time there was no notice in the genkan to say that the apartment was cleaned.

However, we said that even though we like the apartment itself, and it has a lot of potential, it is in completely unacceptable condition right now because of all the damage, and we would consider taking the apartment and moving in only after cleaning and restoration. We agreed to apply to rent the apartment with the understanding that it will be cleaned and fully functional by the time we move in.

We were accepted, and went to sign the contract on Dec 26th. The managing company explained the contract, which I did not understand 100% due to my Japanese skills, but it had a clause saying something like “the tenant is to pay JPY XXXX before moving out for cleaning and repair costs” so naturally I assumed the previous tenants also had to do the same. The move-in date was set for Jan 15th, and we signed the contract. We were told that we would be given the key on Jan 14, and all was done.

Yesterday we got a truck, took all of our stuff to the new apartment, and I am sorry to say NOTHING has been done to the apartment by moving day. It has not even been cleaned, nothing has been repaired, or restored, and the apartment is in horrible condition! There are even marks of human faeces in the toilet bowl and the shower drain is clogged! Honestly, if we knew that nothing would be done, we would not have applied for this apartment.

I am sure you understand this is absolutely unacceptable, especially since it was our condition for renting, and the real estate agent told us we are viewing the apartment before cleaning.

Right now we are trying to contact the owner and the managing company, and I wrote an email to the real-estate agency, but I just wanted to ask Reddit for your 2 cents, since all of you here were very helpful in the past when I had issues that I didn’t know how to handle. In case everyone tries to play dumb, what are my options?

Thank you Reddit, love ya!

Edit 1:
We got a hold of the owner, and he said he would come visit the apartment tomorrow because he had no idea that there was any damage… apparently nobody told him anything.

2 comments
  1. > We agreed to apply to rent the apartment with the understanding that it will be cleaned and fully functional by the time we move in.

    So, you got this agreement in writing, right?

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