Im renting an apartment (in tokyo), nothing fancy, decent building and the usual ‘you know the type’ white wallpaper everywhere and fake wood flooring. Putting the fact that the move in was on the expensive side and… weird (needed to use their company to sign up for electricity, and their moving company) aside, I had 2 issues:
* Apartment wasnt professionally cleaned before my move in. It was clean-ish but you could clearly tell it wasnt professional. I took pics, called the management agency, send the pics by email. The result was two guys came in at 5am (i didnt move in or my stuff in by that time yet and wasnt there but it was already within my rental period), one just stood there doing nothing, the other using only what i can describe as a towel, “wiped” some staff and thats that. I say some because despite sending pics, behold, the stuff i mentioned wasnt even touched. (How do i know that you ask, well, i set up my old phone as a security camera so it recorder when they came in). The official tokyo ‘renting guide’ clearly states it has to be ‘professionally’ cleaned but theres no more description that that.
Not sure what to do about this, as probably many of you, I will be charged ‘cleaning fee’ on move out, but its clear that that money doesnt go towards cleaning. Did anyone here had luck getting the cleaning fee off? or otherwise any advice if its better to just swallow it or.
* Last month, water pump broke in the building. We still get water but, me living on the 8th floor means that pressure is most of the time too weak to travel all the way up to the shower head (you know, when you hang it on the wall, head hight). Its annoying af to say the least and almost impossible to get hot water because the heater doesnt trigger, too little water flow. It took the management company more than a week to acknowledge the issue and when they did, they hanged a notice in the building saying basically “The repair will be expensive, so we have to wait for the company association board meeting which will happen sometime in July to approve the repair”. So basically, I have to wait for a bunch of ojiisans to say its ok for my building to have normal running water again? Which baffles me because as opposed to what… them not approving it?
Can I as a tenat do something? Can I get some kind of reimbursement here? Or do I just have to suck it up?
5 comments
>It took the management company more than a week to acknowledge the issue and when they did, they hanged a notice in the building saying basically
Inform yourself about the possible rent reduction that results from that and then inform your landlord that you will not pay them the full amount until it’s fixed.
No proper water supply is up to a 30% reduction.
The second apartment we rented was like that, when I did the clean up before moving in, the wet tissue came out black… meaning they did not even use a tissue to clean up. That was just the top of the iceberg. Yes, the place did not look dirty but it was not move-in ready.
Many issues with the landlord, like when the faucet in the laundry room broke it took them more than a month and a very upset co worker yelling at them to fix… that also spoiled the under the sink furniture. Examples like that, we have many.
I had paid a big cleaning fee upon moving in (that is for cleaning when you leave) and 2 months deposit due to my cats. Honestly? I was not careful with the place like I was in the previous apartment. At one point we even foster a feral cat mom and her two kittens and they destroyed the entrance wall paper. Moving out cost was zero and I was not expecting to receive anything back from the deposit as I knew the shitty landlord would not do it… I am just happy I am no longer there.
The advice I got was to look for a foreigner support group in your municipality. Regarding yoru current issue, you pay rent to live comfortably in a place, something you can no longer do. I would request reduction of rent, or for them to pay you moving and upfront costs of moving to a new place.
Regarding your first point, this is–from my limited experience–simply The Way It Works. None of the apartments I have lived in had been deep/professionally cleaned. I imagine the rental companies just pay for extremely cheap cleaning services and pocket the rest. It’s like key money, which is as meaningless as Ticketmaster’s transaction fees–just an arbitrary additional cost that means nothing but has become industry standard as a way of extracting more money. Almost all of the upfront costs of moving–besides the rent itself–is essentially a grift. It’s incredibly infuriating, but inescapable. I wonder if this improves at the upper-end of the rent scale…
Is this for real? I cant tell if he is just trolling
Prepare to suck.