Job Discussion Forums

[Black_Beer_Man]

From a recent apartment enquiry with Leo Palace, I found that the company adds many kinds of suspicious fees to the apartment start-up costs.

I saw a few apartment listings with "Disinfection / Sanitation fee 17220 yen" & "lock changing fee 9970 yen" tagged onto the costs.

Japanese friends have told me that the disinfection / sanitation fee is highly suspicious - not typical of apartments in Japan.

If you ever see this fee, ask them if the apartment has cockroaches or if the last tenant died there. There is no reason to pay this fee because there's already a 30,000 yen cleaning fee that you have to pay upon moving out (to clean the apartment for the next tenant).

I've been in Japan for almost a decade and have had a few apartments. Lock changing is rare. Building ownders typically won't force it upon you. Might be a good idea though.

[Black_Beer_Man]

I will add that their sales people use high pressure tactics to make you sign a contract and pay all the start up fees fast.

I was looking at an apartment at the end of April and the salesman said

"Oh, you had better sign the contract within the next day because our promotion of No Key money ends this month."

"We take credit cards if you don't have all the cash."

[Black_Beer_Man]

What do you make of this?

I asked the Leo Palace representative why the apartment I was looking at has a "disinfectant fee" (17220 yen) - if the apartment had cockroaches or if a person had died in it and this was his reply:


"It's an optional ,we can cut it off if you don't need."

How would I know if the apartment needs disinfecting? I don't live in it.

I wrote him back with this question and 24 hours later, I haven't heard back from him.

[mitsui]

Then refuse to pay.
My wife balked at paying for new tatami when we moved in, but when we move out we have to pay for it.

[Black_Beer_Man]

[izmigari]

BBM...refuse to pay anything! Go home! These are hateful, miserable people!

They don't deserve to have good, respectful people, like you, tolerating them.

The scum!

"almost a decade" and still no respect.

Bet "they" still refer to you as "gaijin-SAN"...the rats!

Yet, they continue to gainfully employ you...the fools!!!

[Black_Beer_Man]

[victory7]

[izmigari]

[inshala]

Can't you get a room in Japan without paying key money and deposits? I think theyre on craigslist.

[spiral78]

Count the trolls currently on this thread

[victory7]

[Black_Beer_Man]

Cheers to you Victory7 for your support.

What izmigari wrote was a personal attack against me. Calling me "son" and making unqualified ignorant judgments against me calling me "ungrateful".

He knows very little about my thoughts on Japan other than some of the criticisms I have written.

For the most part, I write these criticisms to help other teachers on Dave's.

When I first came to Japan, I was working for Nova language school and they arranged a room in a guest house for me with Sakura House company. It was a poky 3 tatami mat room in Hatagaya, Tokyo and rent was 63,000 yen a month. Any Japanese person that I talked with about my living situation said I was being cheated viciously. My rent should have been about half that.

Yet, like most foreigners coming to Japan off the plane, I had no idea what reasonable rent was (this was pre-internet days). You lived with blind faith.

With this thread, I just want new teachers in Japan to really do their homework before they sign an apartment contract. I'd say that most of the real estate companies that deal in apartments invent all kinds of service charges out of thin air to cheat the tenants.

Now with the slow economy, many of these companies have had to drop the unwarranted service charges. You can find some apartments where all you have to pay is the 1st month's rent. The situation is getting better in Japan.

That said, be wary if you deal with Leo Palace as they try to charge a lot of these service charges that you shouldn't pay.