I am moving back to Japan from abroad this month. The housing arranged by my work is in Leopalace, which I know is such a scam. It hurts me to think of paying 5万円 for a tiny cardboard box when there are bigger/cheaper/nicer apartments around the corner!! At the same time, I don’t think I have much choice before I’m in the country. I’m still looking into other options, but am wondering if I could immediately change to a monthly contract and move out after the first month. Or would this be a logistical nightmare/come with tons of fees?
TLDR: how can i best limit my time living in a leopalace?
4 comments
Do you need to accept the Leoplace? Just rent AirBNB/weekly apartment/hotel for a week or two — should be enough time for you to find actual apartment.
>I could immediately change to a monthly contract and move out after the first month.
Yes, you can.
>Or would this be a logistical nightmare/come with tons of fees?
Also yes. The two are not mutually exclusive.
You are legally and morally allowed to move out the day you move in. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be breaking a lease and causing a lot of people a lot of headaches, and that will have consequences.
If you’re lucky your lease will be with Leopalace directly. If that’s the case there will be some fees to pay, but there shouldn’t be any long-term consequences.
Unfortunately, your company is arranging the housing, which means you’re unlikely to be so lucky. There’s a good chance that the *company* will be leasing it, and then subletting it to you. If that’s how it ends up… Honestly you’ll want to just wait out the year-long lease. If your company holds the lease you’re going to be making a number of people *who are also your coworkers* fairly unhappy. Your company may end up refusing to terminate the lease and might leave you on the hook for the cost regardless of whether you’re actually living there.
Basically: Read your housing agreement/lease agreement ***very*** carefully if you’re planning on bailing early.
How good is your Japanese? How much money are you willing to spend? Are you ready to lock yourself into a place you don’t know much about for 2 years? If you are looking at a 5万 leopalace, I’m guessing you are in some countryside area and you might not have as many options for landlords willing to rent a cheap place to a freshly entered foreigner as you think.
While LP gets a (fairly justified) bad rep, they are actually pretty decent as an initial accommodation and some of them can even be fairly nice. Consider too that getting your own apartment also involves furnishing that apartment, setting up all your utilities (including potentially months of wait for internet), and lots of fees.
If I were you, I’d wait until you arrive, adjust to your new job and build good relationships with your coworkers, and scope out the areas you might like to live/what amenities you want in a place before worrying about this.
Did they already sign with Leopalace?
Leopalace had a big scandal in Feb 2019. A bunch of articles in Japan times plus J newspapers . Here’s one https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/08/national/leopalace21-starts-moving-14000-residents-homes-across-japan-due-fire-risks-defects/
Essentially they were violating fire codes to make cheaper apartments. This is such an unethical business move I cannot believe they have turned it around in a couple of years.
I would tell your employer that you have huge reservations about moving into the apartment and that your family has expressed concern.
Honestly for me this would be a deal breaker for employment but I don’t know your situation. Leopalace was attractive as it did offer month to month rentals and furnished small apartments which is rare here.