3 months here in Tokyo and we’re about to sign for our first 2 year apartment rental (we’ve been in short term accommodation so far).
We’re using a finder-service agency who have been great so far, however they’re requesting that we pay all fees (upfront rent, deposit, key money, agency fee, all of which comes to more than Â¥750,000) **before** we sign the contract.
Coming from the UK, you never pay before signing a contract in this situation because you have no legal agreement, the contract isn’t defined, and either party could legally change their mind without recourse. If I was being asked to pay a deposit / holding fee, I would be ok making payment upfront, but Â¥750,000 is a significant amount to pay on the basis of ‘trust.’
The agency are being very inflexible on this, and have now said that if we don’t pay upfront, we can’t have the apartment. Being from the UK, I’m not comfortable putting my trust and paying so much money to a landlord / agency without a legal contract.
Has anyone had this experience?
UPDATE: Thanks for everyone who responded. Some really good advice. I held firm, insisted that I couldn’t make full payment before having a signed contract and offered solutions. Over the course of the day (and many many emails), the agency agreed that I can pay as soon as the contract is signed. It appears they weren’t trying to be purposefully difficult, but that it was something they had always done and had never experienced an issue with the request. They’re keen to appeal to more foreigners and actually thanked me for explaining my issue with this. They promised to be more flexible for foreigners in the future.
TO PEOPLE CRITICISING WHAT I’M PAYING: You live in Japan, so why not use the opportunity to be more tolerant before giving your opinions. We waited for 2 years to arrive in Japan with the border closure and while we could live in a cheaper neighbourhood, we picked the neighbourhood we want to live in. Financially, Â¥175,000 per month is affordable for us and having moved from the UK, this apartment is much cheaper than what we’d be paying in London.
15 comments
That is an expensive ass apartment. Usually when you rent an apartment they will have you sign and stamp all the stuff, and give you a notice of how much you need to pay via bank transfer before you recieve the keys. If you are actually being expected to pay before signing, then just find somewhere else if you aren’t cool with it. There’s no shortage of places to live.
According to my experience here, the payments I did have always been made upon signing the contract. I don’t know, something smells fishy. Although I’ve heard of extreme discrimination against gaijin in some real state agencies, so anything is possible in the racist Japan. If I were in the same situation I’d not pay and look for another agency.
Wish you good luck!
As others have said, usually you pay after you sign the contract. Sometimes they can ask just for the agency fee after you have been accepted and before signing the contract.
Also, I don’t know what kind of apartment are you going to rent, but 75万 seems way too expensive.
When I rented last time, this came up and I kinda remember this might have been a thing at the previous one too. Pay the monies before you get the keys. At least that was a big renting company and the receipt of paid fees was readily available.
But for the last one, it was just the management company (no agent = no key monies, no renewal fees yay) so my trust was …lacking, but they were just happy to also get paid in cash when signing.
Try that? Offer to bring a fat envelope for the signing.
Yes, it’s normal for you to pay these upfront fees before then signing the contract. I’m in the same process – I’ll be transferring the money Thursday, then signing the lease Friday.
Not sure why everyone is telling you the costs are crazy – this is a little less than I’m paying for a 2LDK
I’ve had the same experience twice (both times moving with my Japanese girlfriend so unclear whether it’s anti-gaijin or just us by chance having dodgy agents).
We moved with mini mini and then moved with a smaller company (seemingly affiliated with one of the big construction companies?) and:
1. with mini mini they asked to transfer the entire initial fees before signing the contract. We told them we wouldn’t be sending any money until we could at least see a copy of the contract and read through it. They semi-refused at first but the apartment wasn’t super well sought after (that a bad omen heh but anyway) and they agreed to email us a copy. Contract looked fine so we transferred the money and proceeded.
2. second place we had to pay about 30% of the total initial fees upfront (bullshit but it was a nice place, they said it would be refunded in full if we chose to back out and we had that in writing so we thought OK whatever) and then pay the rest after signing the contract. They flat out refused to send us a copy of the contract but like I said it was a nice place built and managed by a very large (luxury) construction firm so we just assumed (hoped) it would be fine. Everything was fine but yeah YMMV. (*Also our initial fees for this place were also about 700,000 yen, hurts doesn’t it haha*)
So basically, your best bet is to ***insist*** on them **emailing you a copy of the contract before** you transfer any money.
If they still refuse then I guess it’s up to you to decide on whether you still want the place or whether you want to “die on that hill”.
Request to sign the lease in person while making all those lump sum payments in person. At the same time, on the same day.
Good real estate companies can do that. When I did all of these signing, it was done in the realtor’s office and my agent put his real estate license on the desk the entire time.
On the other hand it’s also fine for them to ask you to pay all these payments upfront. This isn’t wrong or uncommon either.
If you like the apartment very much, offer pay the lump sum in cash. If the agency still don’t bent then walking away is certainly an option.
Since people aren’t really answering, here’s the answer:
[Yes it’s normal](https://ardent.jp/rentoffice-consultation-center/basic/keiyakumaeno-nyukin/)
Had this experience a few weeks ago. Paid two invoices (deposit, agency, etc. on one invoice, guarantor on another) on Friday, signed papers the next Monday, got keys and moved in on Saturday. It definitely felt pretty strange but talking to other coworkers a lot of them had to do it as well, so I wouldn’t stress over it.
Did they give a reason or how far your application has proceeded?
Usually you are only speaking to a real estate agency acting on behalf of the building owner. So the real estate agency forwards your info to the building owner, the building owner accepts you and they draft a formal contract. Did your agency at least even tell you that your application was accepted by the building owner and that they are in the process of giving you a formal contract?
Still I don’t think that is normal. Every place had provided me a formal contract with the building owner and the real estate agency’s stamp before I paid anything.
This happened to me as well. The invoices for the real estate agency & for the initial fees were due a couple of days before the contract signing day.
In my case, both the rental agency and the property management are very well known in Japan so I had no issue in sending the funds.
It’s normal. Very few scams in Japan for some reason. People are quite honest here.
It’s normal. I’m assuming you’re in at least a 1 LDK that’s relatively big considering what you’re paying
Rent a UR. It’s much cheaper than what you’re paying for … space …. to live in. If you’re planning to live here for a short time save your money wisely and live like a local. I can understand if you’d like to live like a rich Japanese / expat paying through the nose for everything but who needs to pay so much money on rent? Is your company paying it for you? You can find a decent place to live for much less money.
> TO PEOPLE CRITICISING WHAT I’M PAYING: You live in Japan, so why not use the opportunity to be more tolerant before giving your opinions. We waited for 2 years to arrive in Japan with the border closure and while we could live in a cheaper neighbourhood, we picked the neighbourhood we want to live in. Financially, Â¥175,000 per month is affordable for us and having moved from the UK, this apartment is much cheaper than what we’d be paying in London.
A lot of people here are living on survival wages and there’s more than a bit of sour grapes if you’re not an extreme frugal half-price-bento-chasing thrift shopper who never goes outside. Best to just ignore them.