I got my Leopalace while I was still overseas, without visiting the apartment, thinking everything will be fine.
WRONG. The apartment was stinking of たばこ, incrusted in the walls, everywhere except the bathroom. たばこ doesn’t go away unless you tear all of the wallpaper. I already had turned on the water and electricity, so I had to turn it off without having my customer number yet, which was a pain in the ass.
Leopalace maintenance guy says it does stink but “it differs from people to people”. No shit Sherlock.
I had to move out to a different apartment and burn some money to live at the hotel while I find another apartment.
Spent 38万円 in total for this Leopalace bullshit
12 comments
Horrible reputation, this adds to it. Maybe a share house would’ve been good until you had the lay the land.
That’s 残念. Hope your next apartment doesn’t stink of たばこ.
Leopalace is infamous for horrible apartment as well as violation to many construction laws in Japan, had a few ongoing lawsuits against them few years back. Result of revoking a few of their construction worker’s license and closing a couple of their offices as part of the penalty. 1,895 leopalace locations were found unqualified with the building standard law and is aiming to fix them all by 2024. (which I find it impossible)
My Leopalace was fine but I had it through Interac (and I like to think Interac would have handled it for me if I had the same experience).
I suppose they’re pretty desperate now since a big chunk of their tenants are/were foreigners.
たばこ is better than おしっこ though I guess… or even うんこ for that matter.
うどん on the other hand, would be nice smell.
I think the word you were looking for is cigarettes.
The apartment was stinking of cigarettes.
Good luck with your move.
On my moving out day, they sent some yakuza guy to inspect the apartment. He started charging us things left and right for all sorts of damage, most of which was already there. Tiny wallpaper scratch that is smaller than 1mm x 1mm? 1500 yen. Paint chipped on some wood due to age? 2000 yen. All while yelling at us the whole time and he looked ready to smack us down if we dared to argue. He requested like 60000 yen in damages and by that point we just wanted to pay him off so he’ll get out.
I visited a friend’s LeoPalace and it was as small as a coffin. The terrible thing was all the plastic and wallpaper was off-gassing so the air smelled toxic.
I live in a leopalace. It’s fine, good location, decent size and nice balcony. Similar price than other apartments in the area. First months rent was free too.
Renting without seeing the apartment first is always a bad idea.
Mileage may vary but I found a newer building myself and it was around 16 tatami. Rent was 6 man but other than the internet being trash it was great.
I would never go back to them though, because I had a host guy move in next door and his incessant partying drove me insane.
You can’t really blame Leopalace if you didn’t handle your due diligence by visiting the apartment in person before signing a lease to live there….
The only complaint I ever had about the Leopalace I stayed in was the price, and the price wasent even THAT bad.
But the next year I moved to a place that was 19000 a month (Instead of 58000) and 6msq larger. And didn’t require a guarantor.