My dorm room is pretty small, so I had to stack some stuff up, including some dishes next to the sink. A while back, one of the dishes fell and left a small crack in the sink. But, I used it for another 6 months with no problems.
When I moved out last month and had to rush back to my home country , they inspected the sink and told me it needed to be replaced for 50,000 yen. I didn’t really have time to argue, so I just left it at that.
Today, they suddenly contacted me and said I need to pay 77,000 yen by Wednesday. That seems like way too much for just a little crack in the sink. What can I do about this?
5 comments
You could try to negotiate saying that you were told 50k and that 77k is excessive. Who has the leverage in this negotiation will come down to whether or not they currently hold a deposit from you.
According to [this page](https://www.hasegawagilyousei.com/%E8%B3%83%E8%B2%B8%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB-%E6%95%B7%E9%87%91%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB%E3%82%88%E3%81%8F%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E8%B3%AA%E5%95%8F/%E6%B4%97%E9%9D%A2%E5%8F%B0%E3%81%AE%E5%8E%9F%E7%8A%B6%E5%9B%9E%E5%BE%A9%E8%B2%BB%E7%94%A8/), it’s common to charge 30,000 – 50,000 yen to fix a crack in a sink, and it shouldn’t be necessary to replace the sink entirely. Perhaps ask to see an estimate for the repair, and offer to cover that. 77,000 seems like a lot for just the sink – perhaps they found some other issue, like damage to the flooring or wallpaper, and added it on?
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edit: Or maybe they had the repairperson come around and then realized they needed to replace it / couldn’t just swap the sink bowl and had to swap out the whole fixture, etc
Are you enrolled in a student insurance plan? (It might even have been mandatory to sign up) If so, you may want to consult with a student affairs office about whether it could apply to a case like this.
Don’t pay they cannot charge you with force.
I mean if you damaged it, you should pay for it’s replacement. I’m sorry it sucks but that’s part of being a responsible adult in society. Every apartment is different sure but any apartment I’ve ever lived in, if I damaged something I either repaired it or replaced it before the management told me to, it’s much cheaper that way. Take this as a lesson and maybe try to negotiate a payment plan?