Hello as I prepare to move into my apartment that my pred has been using I’ve been told that my pred is responsible for cleaning the apartment rather the the BoE having a company professionally cleaning it.
Is this normal practice ? I’m worried my pred won’t do a good job cleaning it, I’m also worried my pred will leave a bunch of random stuff and junk behind for me because it’s easier then disposing.
Also im being told as soon as I arrive I need to pay for the cars Shakken because it’s due Aug 6th right after I arrive. Is this even enough time to get the car inspected and paid for ? What happens if I get it done after the 6th due date which has been presented to me as crucial?
28 comments
>Is this normal practice ?
This subs BEST and favorite answer: ESID.
>Is this even enough time to get the car inspected and paid for ? What happens if I get it done after the 6th due date which has been presented to me as crucial?
Have you done any research into shakken and what it is?
Plenty of info online, but the basically its like a car registration. Cant legally drive with an expired shakken (normally)
I really regret not looking at the apartment that I was signing up for when I arrived.
You could definitely offer to pay the fee to get it professionally cleaned if you want to.
Definitely super ESID on the cleaning thing. For me, my place was pretty nasty even though my supervisor apparently cleaned it herself a bit. I found and paid for professional cleaners to clean everything for me a few weeks in.
Who’s car was it originally? Your pred? Own by your BOE? I can’t offer any advice but paying for Shaken right after arriving just sucks, I’m sorry ☹️☹️☹️
When you arrive start asking around shops if they can do your shaken for you.
Once the shaken expires, you cannot drive the car. You have two options to get the car inspected. You can ask if the shop can pick up the car and have it towed to the shop. The second option is to get a temporary license plate from your town hall that allows you to drive the vehicle from where it’s parked to the shop (but not for anything else). The temporary plate might be cheaper, but you have to do the paperwork to get the plates issued.
Since you’re going to have to get the name changed on the cars registration as well, it might be a good idea to ask a dealer to do your shaken and the name change paperwork at the same time.
You also should get supplementary insurance (任意保険) before driving the car. The mandatory insurance that is included in the cost of doing the shaken is basically shit.
In my area apartments generally aren’t professionally cleaned. At most some people from the boe will go to make sure it’s in good condition and do any necessary cleaning. A friend of mine arrived to an apartment that had been empty for a few months so she spent the first week or two deep cleaning everything. I knew her pred and she put a lot of effort into cleaning before she left, but idk I guess after a few months unoccupied it didn’t meet her sucessor’s standards
Wild!! My BOE has all ALTs pay a kind of expensive cleaning fee when we move out. But my apartment was still pretty dirty when I moved in, so I’m not sure how trustworthy the service they use is anyways lol. I know I defs could have done a better job myself
In my area they need to get the aircon cleaned professionally but not the apartment.
I think it’s quiet uncomfortable for it to be professionally cleaned.
And even though there’s likely only a couple weeks the apartment is left empty, you’d want to clean it again after you get it anyway.
Summer will be gross in Japan and the air settles after being closed up for so long.
My apartment came covered in mold! Don’t forget to check under the bath tub.
Yeah that’s pretty normal though like everyone says ESID but my pred left stuff (luckily mostly good stuff) and cleaned pretty well but they had a dog and im allergic so i still had to do a ton of cleaning. Kinda just a fact of life it might not be that clean- or it could be super clean. Count yourself lucky you dont have to find an apartment and a car all by yourself. There’s good and bad in everything. I think it’ll probably work out alright for you though though things are rarely perfect- I wish you the best :))/srs
I found a used up tooth paste tube in my bathroom. This shit happens unfortunately lol. Weirdly I enjoyed cleaning my slightly gross apartment, it was somewhat therapeutic. If your pred leaves behind junk, unfortunately you’ll just have to deal with it. It sucks, but it’ll only be a problem until you’re able to clean it yourself.
If possible, see if you can get an estimate of what the shaken will cost. Sometimes buying a used car is more affordable than doing the shaken. I wouldn’t let them just decide that you will do the shaken and use that car.
A word of warning – the shaken is usually at least 100,000 yen and can be more if the car is older.
Tbh sometimes they collect a cleaning fee for a “professional cleaner” and they end up just sending in their handy man with a damp cloth. I wouldn’t rely on them either.
One other place in my town both the predecessor and successor were charged a cleaning fee and the place wasn’t touched between them moving.
I actually think that other than getting the aircon cleaned the ALT might do a better job.
Is there really no penalty for predecessors who leave a bunch of random stuff and junk behind and/or leave the apartment dirty? I guess the next question is, “How could they be penalized after they leave?”
My pred left behind a lot of bulky garbage and there was cat hair everywhere. The bathroom was also left uncleaned. The disgusting part was clearing the bathroom drain of what seemed to have been a year’s worth of body hair and muck. I did complain to my supervisor but I just moved on and forgot. But looking back I wish there was some way to minorly financially penalize my pred for that.
Typically you pay a cleaning fee on either moving out or moving in to an apartment, so it’ll get cleaned either way under normal circumstances as you’ll be paying or the person moving out will, this is mandated by the realtor.
However, for BoE handled apartments, they’re often completely skipping the realtor side of things as they “manage” the apartments. The benefits of this are things like no key money, no/low deposit amounts, not having to pay several months of rent upfront, etc. Downsides are what you’re mentioning here, who cleans it?
Personally, if I moved into an apartment that had the cleaning left up to the previous JET tenant I would arrange my own private cleaning anyway. If you’re not happy with the state of it once you’ve moved, I’d recommend checking out kurashimarket （くらしマーケット）and looking for cheap locals/small businesses that can offer the service much cheaper than some companies, they also often offer bulk collection services for any left over crap the previous tenant might have left behind for you.
This was many years ago – old fart who stayed – but my place was disgusting, I complained and they sent a cleaner. I also had no furnishings so it was just awful to have nothing AND it be disgusting when I had no idea what any cleaning products were or did. (This was slightly before google lens and daiso invading other countries/labeling things multilingual.)
Well, it is part of being adaptable when you move overseas. If you are not comfortable and wants a clean apartment, I’ll suggest finding an apartment from a realtor.
I honestly have no expectations at all of the BOE’s provided lodging since I’m not paying much for rent.
I don’t really like the idea of pre-emptively complaining with no evidence that it might be the case.
That said if there is crap in the apartment when you get it, or if it needs a professional clean, all you could really do is talk to your school about reimbursing you for the costs of disposal/cleaning.
But there’s every possibility they’ll shrug and just leave you with a dirty apartment.
ESID, but it was normal in my case. I’m in BOE housing and they don’t charge anyone key money or any other move in or cleaning fees. My pred left for their flight at 6am and I moved in after work that day at 4pm. No one knew what the condition of the apartment would be like.
Thankfully, people from my school’s office came with me to check it out and brought along cleaning supplies and a bunch of garbage bags. They helped me dispose of a ton of stuff (with my limited Japanese I basically just told them I didn’t want anything…there was a lot of junk) and even did some light cleaning of the floors, counters, etc.
However one thing they didn’t help with is the bathroom. As someone else in this thread mentioned, check under/inside your tub (many of them have a removable side panel) and prepare yourself for a horror scene. Mine hadn’t been cleaned out in what seemed like a decade and it was caked in mold. I’ve done my best to try to get in there from all angles, but it’s quite difficult even with bleach and kabi killer (a brand of mold cleaner). It’s been about a year and I’m still considering hiring someone to clean the underside of the tub after many failed self-attempt. Yuck!
I also am surprised there is no policy that the apartment should be cleaned (at least by the previous tenant). I’d rather they have me pay a deposit on move-in that’s refundable when I move out if it’s clean, especially if that had meant my pred cleaned the apartment. But you get what you get. I hope you have better luck!
Moved into my apartment and spent the next week and a half cleaning and dumping the accumulated trash from half a dozen JETs. Needless to say that put a dampener on enjoying my new situation. Thankfully my supervisor and a neighbour gave me a much needed hand and cold beer.
That’s interesting. My BoE has a cleaning deposit at the start to replace all the tatami and clean the apartment. Though I kind of wish I could get some left over stuff.
EDIT. I’m getting some left over furniture yay
Are you getting the car for free? If you are paying for it I would say definitely don’t go for that and get a second hand car with shaken paid as it will be really expensive, the base cost alone is usually 80,000 yen depending on the type of car and then plus any work that needs doing. When I moved I bought my preds car but he let me pay installments, def wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise (it was a nice white plate hybrid car) also word of caution some other JETs bought super old cars off their preds and then they got burst tyres or breakdowns which you really don’t want in a foreign country
My BOE cleaned the apartment, yours doesn’t.
I mean if you aren’t paying a bond or paying for the cleaning just go with it?
If you lined up to take over the car and shaken is due just pay it – then your car is good for two years. Usually better to buy your own car with shaken already but it is what it is.
Go with the flow and enjoy the ride none of this sounds too unusual.
By the way, you can do shaken yourself and save ¥50,000 or so. Make sure all your lights are working. Take it to the shop and they’re gonna force you to buy wipers when you don’t even need them, etc. etc.
My pred left absolutely everything as it was in the apartment, down to bottles of shampoo and old food. There was also junk from the previous 5 or 6 Jets crammed in the closet. A few people from city hall came out to help me clean it so it wasn’t so bad. I’m just surprised honestly that people aren’t embarrassed to leave things like that. I know my pred corresponded with some of those people for a while after she left, and I wonder if she knew that they had to spend hours hauling her crap to the dump because she didn’t care enough to do so.
I think that having the previous person clean the apartment rather than having it professionally cleaned is pretty standard. My predecessor tried her best–most things were ok, and there was no old food etc at least, but she didn’t do a great job. There was A LOT of dust under / behind furniture (fair and not a big deal) but the “ewww!” factor was that there were old condoms under the bed. Thankfully I had a lot of time in August before school started to clean to my own standards and move things around the way I liked.
ESID. I would say it is pretty common for the CO or BOE to not really do much with the apartment in regards to cleaning, but some I’ve heard do a good job of making sure the apartment is in good shape for you.
I was unfortunately one of the horror stories. I am specifically in BOE teacher housing, so the rent is next to nothing but the apartments in general are in bad shape. Numerous preds had left random things, which wasn’t a big deal, but our apartment was vacant for over a year and had water damage from a typhoon during that time. This caused there to be mold on basically everything, even on some of the walls. The smell was so bad when they took me to the apartment that my supervior literally stood by the door that led outside because he couldn’t handle the smell. Needless to say the first few days were hell, and I got zero sleep. I spent the entire first month cleaning mold and throwing out things that were full of mold. After all the time, money, and elbow grease I put into it, it became a livable apartment that honestly my pred will still probably be disappointed in, but at least they won’t have to suffer as much as I did.
Please keep in mind though that my situation is probably one of the most extreme cases. You might get lucky and your apartment will be in great shape, but also prepare yourself mentally for the fact that it might not be the level of clean you’re hoping for and it’s very likely there will be stuff left behind by other preds. Don’t be afraid to ask your school or CO for help if you need it regarding the apartment.
Good luck with everything. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!