My wife and I live in an apartment building where the owner has seemingly died/disappeared off the face of the earth. A few weeks ago we tried calling to get a bush overgrowing our veranda trimmed and were constantly brushed off by our management company until they finally said the owner isn’t answering their calls. Cut to yesterday when our internet suddenly died. We have a contract with jcom because they run the net in our building so I called them to find out what’s wrong. After some back and forth, they told me that the owner stopped paying the building’s electricity bill and now the internet to our building has been cut.
My wife is planning to call the the management company tomorrow to light a fire under their asses, but what the hell can I do in this situation? Where does the buck stop if the management company can’t sort this out. My first instinct is to gtfo out of this place but we just renewed our lease for 200k yen and we’ve got a kid on the way. I feel like someone is not meeting their obligations and if I was back home in nz, I would contact the Tenancy Tribunal for advice. Who do you contact in Japan for these situations?
4 comments
maybe the owner died? you can preface that concern when you talk to the management again to inform them about what j:com said instead of going ballistic over the unpaid bills, something like charm offensive.
Call your local 消費者センター　[https://www.kokusen.go.jp/map/](https://www.kokusen.go.jp/map/)
Then, if it becomes necessary to involve a lawyer, 法テラス is a good place to start.
You are entitled to a reduction in rent for the loss of the value of the services impacted for the period in which they are unavailable under article 611 of the civil code.
Electricity is 10% of rent, with an exemption period of three days, same for communications equipment (Internet, phone, TV due to antenna, etc.)
So, if we assume your rent is 300,000 per month in a month with 30 days, your rent is 10,000 yen per day, so they are required to reduce your rent for 1,000 yen for every day the electricity is unavailable, ditto the Internet connection. 2,000 yen per day.
The other main ones:
Toilet – 30%
Bath – 10%
Water – 30%
AC (if included) – 5K yen per month
Gas – 10%
Let the management company know the clock is ticking on theses expenses, and they’ll work a LOT harder.
Owner died, now the apartment he owned is too. There’s a writing prompt here.