So I’m considering moving into a new a bit bigger apartment (マンション). My current lease says I have to give 2 months notice during the moving out, while the real estate guy says I normally apply to move in the new apartment within 1 month. This means I’m gonna either have to officially notify my old apartment of me leaving, then apply for a new one after few weeks, hope to be accepted and move in, or have the move out and move in dates overlap for 1 month, paying double rent. Is this how it usually works here?
Now learning from my mistake, the real estate guy says the new place ALSO requires 2 months notice for moving out. I find it odd that the new appt requires to give notice to move in of 1 month, but then requires 2 months to move out, this seeming not very reasonable. Has any of you successfully negotiated 1 month move out notice? How about the 2-year renewal fee? I’m curious how flexible vs set-in-stone these are usually in Japan.
6 comments
You can try negotiating with your current place, but who knows.
When you find a new place you can try to set the move in for a point convenient to you. Some level of overlap may be unavoidable, but you can maybe keep it to one week or two. If you try to delay the move in date too much, they can potentially cancel and go with their backup application if they have one.
But yeah, I do think this is another negative aspect of the rental system here. Either you find a new place before giving notice, get pushed to move in quickly and end up paying near double rent for a month. Or you give notice first, and then are forced to find somewhere good within a harsh time limit, which makes the agent’s job easier as you’d be more likely to agree to what they first show you. When I moved last I felt I was in a ‘strong’ position to be selective precisely because I had no deadlines and didn’t technically need to move at all.
The standard residential contract in Japan allows you to move out after six months, but with at least a two-month notice. Very standard.
The “move in within 1 month” thing is likely a reflection of them not wanting to hold the apartment empty for a month for you. One way it often works is that you find an apartment that will be vacated and available in 2+ months, so that you can make the contract and then give notice to your old place.
You can always ask about reducing the two-month’s notice to one, but in my experience (a grand total of two times), it’s non-negotiable. They want their guaranteed money.
The requirements for notifying a landlord about breaking the contract are often tied to the other conditions. If the place has low initial fees or a low rent, but the conditions for checking out are strict, the landlord is looking for a resident who will stay longer than average. If the initial fees are high, the landlord is not that concerned about residents who pack up and leave immediately. Even if there are a few month when the place is empty until a new resident is found, the lost rent will be made up with the initial fees.
Anyway, the ability to negotiate depends on the desperation of the owner, so if your place is in the 23 wards of Tokyo, your ability to negotiate away the contract renewal fees is very low.
It’s been about 15 years since I rented in Japan, but the last place, I was able to set my move-in date based on when I was moving out of my former place. In fact, the place I was moving into asked me to wait two more weeks (I think for cleaning and such).
In general, if renters are telling their landlords they are moving out two months from now….the landlords will be advertising the opening two months before it becomes available. In practice, it actually doesn’t represent a major constraint.
Often you can request a move in date (then you’d pay the daily rent for the month that is not full), but it’s not always possible, since they want to rent out the place as soon as possible. If the place is actually popular (they often say it is popular, even if it’s not, could you imagine that?), they probably don’t want to budge. But if they don’t have other applications, they probably rather take the date you request. If they don’t agree to the date you request, you don’t have to take the place, just refuse and try another, if you’re not in a rush.
You can also negotiate a bit if you feel like it. For example try to negotiate a free month or smaller move in fees. It’s not all set in stone. But some apartments are not possible to negotiate.
Personally I want at least 1-2 weeks overlap, so I can move during this time in a more relaxed manner. So for me 1 month overlap wouldn’t be an issue. But of course some want less/no overlap.
To avoid grievous fuckups, such as the moving company being delayed because their boss had an unplanned aneurysm*, you really need a bit of overlap.
i.e. start leasing your new place *before* moving out of your old place.
Unfortunately, this costs money. But that’s just life.
*For example purposes only.