I have lived in this UR property for almost 4 years. Although it’s not trashed, it’s not in the best condition either. I started living here right before the pandemic, started working full-time remote from the apartment, and I love to cook. And I used to smoke a lot.
Now that some context is given,
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1. Two tatami floors has some furniture damage (tatami compressed where the furniture legs were, other than that, clean as a whislte)
2. Shoji doors has marks from being used for 4 years continuously.
3. Walls have yellow-ish tint from smoking. (my wallpapers were not exactly white, they were baige)
4. no significant functional damage elsewhere.
Given the situation, how much may I have to pay for the damage? I have been hearing mixed information.
Can someone give me a solution to rub the tar off from the wallpaper?
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7 comments
UR is not going to screw you over. If they ask you to pay a certain amount it will be fair.
If you try to fight a fair offer you will lose.
Not sure about tar.
Tatami and wallpaper depreciate. How much you owe depends on when it was installed, but it depreciates to zero after 6 years. If your apartment allowed smoking inside then you will probably only owe your cleaning fee in your contract. If it did not, then they are within their rights to also charge you the extra fee for ozone treatments or the like to remove the smell.
The payments towards damages while leaving a UR apartment are pretty reasonable. Sometimes they can flip the tatami over, and that would cost you only half the amount. You can ask the inspecting person if that is possible. You have to conver the shoji cost fully, no concession there. Yes, as someone said, the cost to replace wallpapers goes down annually 2 years from the time you moved in. Minor stains on wallpapers often come off with water and piece of cloth, try doing that.
Most importantly, clean as well as you can, and leave no trash behind. Pay particular attention to the washing machine place, bathroom mold (e.g. with MagiClean), and channels of sliding doors. If at first sight the place doesn’t look too dirty, the inspecting person may turn a blind eye to some of the other damages.
UR is one of the company that will definitely not screw you over. This is a company that was practically created for the sole purpose of supporting housing of Tokyo’s people.
You might get charged, but it shouldn’t be a great amount. Especially not for normal wear&tear, they’re not your responsibility by the way, free of charge.
Despite what others have said, and this was years ago, they wanted to charge way too much for the tatami. I said no and explained that there was natural wear and tear, couldn’t find anywhere in the contract where they would put in new ones while I was there. The person doing the inspecting got back to me and said they had lowered the price.
That is just my experience.
I lived in a UR apartment. They gave me a handbook (conveniently in English) that went through all types of damage, what was URs responsibility and what was mine when I moved in. There’s also the items that depreciate and I found an explanation for my city. For example. In Tokyo, wallpaper fully depreciates after 6 heart, they can’t charge you for it.
You won’t be charged, all of that damage is considered normal wear and tear(unless they had a no smoking policy?). In any case, all those items are replaced after a long term renter moves out.