When I was moving out I had to pay the last rent, but also a cleaning fee. The building manager/receptionist told me I will have to clean and make sure everything i cleaned properly, from drains to cabinets to windows to fridge/freezer. Everything should be cleaned. I even got a bullet point list from her explaining how I should clean lol.
This made me ask about the fee. I straight up asked what it is for, considering I am the one cleaning it and that it needs to pass an inspection. The building manager told me that there will come a cleaning lady to clean up the room regardless of me doing it or not.
I feel that this fee is just a way for them to grab extra cash.
Another thing about this was that my room was dirty when I moved in. This means that the person before me cleaned, paid for someone to clean, and still it was not clean. Hair on the floor, dirty fridge etc.
In my home country we have govermental agencies that we can contact about matters like these, where the tentant (or customer) wants to dispute the fairness of a contract/charge. I would very much like them to be pressured somehow to explain why this fee exists given that each tentant has to pay this fee even though they are required to clean themselves.
Is there any agency like this in Japan that I can turn to?
4 comments
Just don’t do it. They are already taking a cleaning fee from your deposit I assume.
There may be a local agency. Which city/prefecture are you in? For example, Tokyo has a [Guidelines publication](https://www.juutakuseisaku.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/juutaku_seisaku/tintai/pdf/310-6-jyuutaku_eng.pdf) and contact information therein.
I was cleaning my last place before I moved out. My landlady came to ask me something and I told her I was cleaning up. She said “don’t worry about that, I hire a company to clean after you leave”. I still cleaned because my landlady was a sweetheart and I didn’t want to leave a bad impression, but if you don’t care about who you’re renting from, I’d just leave it dirty.
I felt the same way about cleaning but my gf said it’s also about if we leave it dirty there’s a chance they might add another fee if they find something very dirty or damaged/hard to clean.