I rented a one room apartment as a remote work office during the pandemic for two years, room in a ‘manshon’ in Chiba.
Moved out. Wasn’t able to be there when they did the room inspection. Email arrived today saying the condition was fine so they would return the deposit.
But they said that when inspecting I had left bathroom and kitchen tap / faucet nozzles attached. These are those little 100 yen shop rubber nozzles that you put on taps to change from single stream to spray of water. These can be pulled off with one pull and chucked in the trash.
They said there was a removal and disposal fee of 2,000 yen for this ‘infraction’!!
台所水栓と浴室洗面台水栓に浄水器が残置されていた為、撤去処分費2,000円と振込
手数料385円を日割返金分から差し引いて…
It’s only 2,000 yen but just seems so petty and greedy. Since these belong to me, the polite thing to do would have been to ask me if I want to collect them, not throw them away then impose an inflated fine. While not obliged to do that, it just seems to me like another example of how agents always try to skim off money.
(I’m already annoyed by this agent/owner as I extended beyond two years by ten days and they still insisted on charging me a month’s rent renewal fee. Again within their ‘right’ but just greedy.)
Anyone have similar experiences? Should I push back on this ridiculous 2,000 fee out of principle or let it slide?
9 comments
Petty and greedy is pretty much the name of the game with these post-rental ‘expenses’. They’ll try every trick in the book to whittle your deposit down to nothing.
Honestly that is on you. Contract has a clause saying revert to original status. Even if it is an attachment only. See the 2000 yen as staff cost to send someone take it off and properly dispose of it. If it was 20.000 yen then it would be worth protesting but 2000 seems about right. Also consider that a lot of people leave something back and as long as not valuable thing it would be too time consuming for them to get the prior tenant to pick it up. Especially when they need to do rennovation or cleaning before the next tenant can see the place or move in.
For your sanity, let it slide. A 2,385 yen deduction is nothing!
Edit/addition: It is not “greedy” by the way for the landlord/agent to charge you a renewal fee if you go over the contract period – that was the agreement you freely signed, it is very simple.
Not worth the time and effort…
Feel free to vent. No matter how good a tenant you are it seems like agents/landlords are incapable of showing even the smallest concession to the small print.
2000 yen; and here you are complaining on Reddit.
Crack a 9% chuhai and relax.
I agree it’s ridiculous that you have to remove things that the next tenants would appreciate. I want to add a shelf to our closet because we have a ton of unused space above the clothes rack, but my husband keeps saying no because we’ll have to take it down when we leave. Surely the next tenant would also want the shelf! 🤷🏻♀️
If that was it, you’re doing good. Last time I moved out they started dinging me for every piece of damage in the place. When I told them to go to hell, as basically all of it was from the previous tenant, they started to pick a fight. Thank god I videod the entire apartment when I moved in, and when I told them that they finally backed down.
Eat the 2000 and move along, you’re time is probably worth more than the extra shit they will have forgotten to tell you about once you push.
I got charged for damaged wallpaper replacement (fair), and 4000 yen for disposal of said wallpaper.