Job Discussion Forums

[fluffyhamster]

The accommodation agency that manages the apartment block where I live seems to dream up some sort of intrusive work every quarter or so, and sends all us lucky occupants a letter asking us to pick a day and time from several on offer for when we'd like to have our privacy invaded; usually this work is scheduled at the weekend and/or during the holidays, but if you're busy or out, you're not apparently expected to mind them letting themselves in to do whatever.

So this past year, I've had my plugholes plunged (and numerous photos taken of - GASP - the odd speck of mould or slime that gets brought up), and a new boiler fitted in my absence (I padlocked up the rooms they wouldn't need to be entering, couldn't get the time off work to sit through five hours of noise); yet more photos got taken on a third visit (to install a remote control to the boiler), this time of slight scratches/rust marks on the bathroom floor from THEIR ladders etc.

Anyway, the next round of work due is apparently a simple procedure to convert the apartments' analogue TV and/or phonelines or something to digital.

I don't watch TV, I hardly use my landline, and I have not requested this work, but I am expected to make myself available during Golden Week so these *ssholes can do non-essential work (I'm prepared to accept that a new boiler might've been necessary, probably the old one was one of the faulty models that have been gassing people, but digital TV?). You'd think they could leave it until after I've vacated the apartment (which I will most definitely be doing from next April).

Oh, we also received at least half a dozen letters (about one every fortnight) at the beginning of last year exhorting us all to dispose of our waste properly, until the likely offending salaryman moved.

Does anyone else have intrusive agents or landlords? If so, how do you handle them? (I'm assuming that you agree that this is intrusive, at least by western standards...and I doubt if many of their Japanese tenants are exactly pleased about all this, either. So, no snooty replies about 'THEIR rights are probably in your contract blah blah blah', please).

[JimDunlop2]

I'd like to be sympathetic... Really, I would. But honestly, that's the life of a renter. And not just in Japan, either. I've had to put up with all the annoyances you have mentioned, regardless of where I was. The only part that struck me out of the ordinary was the picture-taking. Aside from that, performing standard maintenance means the landlord is doing his job. Quite honestly, I would prefer that to the landlord that lets it all go to pot and refuses to fix/replace anything.

As for the digital TV, it's going to inconvenience SOMEONE.... Japan has adopted a digital broadcast system that eventually EVERYONE will have to switch over to sooner or later, lest you get NO reception whatsoever. The broadcasters have given a deadline as to when this switchover will happen by, but it looks like your landlord has just chosen to do things sooner.

Yeah, I hear your pain, but short of the picture-taking, it's not unusual to have a rented unit be like Grand Central Station at times. Been there, done that myself.

[furiousmilksheikali]

Did you ask them why they were taking photographs?

It's interesting that they were taking pictures of damage that they had caused. I would just make sure that you are not asked to pay for any repairs that they have caused. If you've paid a deposit on your apartment then the amount that you get back can sometimes be minus the costs of any necessary repairs.

Other than that if you don't want them to spend too long in your house just answer the door in the nude and see if they don't get things done in record time.

[fluffyhamster]

Yeah, I know, but sometimes it's the maid's year off, and what if I want to go somewhere during the vacation?

Actually, I usually play the dumb foreigner card and don't reply to letters, calls etc (even though I know roughly what they're saying), that way I can put off stuff that I can't make time for. With the boiler remote, I couldn't stall them for more than a week or two, but I reckon I can get away with(out) this digital TV BS...just so long as I don't open my door for several days between the hours of 10am and 5 pm.

When I lived in Hokkaido, I didn't hear from my landlady in three whole years (granted, she owned the hotel beneath the apartments and a nearby 7-11, so she was around and could keep and eye on things...and the BOE had set it up years ago, and could be contacted in case of emergency e.g. naked foreigner running down the corridors). The place was perhaps a bit old n shabby if you looked closely and/or by Japanesze standards, but it was really cosy, and when the boiler packed up, it was replaced within a day or so of my informing them. That, if you ask me, is how tenants should be treated.

[madeira]

They have keys; you don't have to be there. You just have to say it's OK to go in. At least they tell you!

The first week I was in Japan, some guy came into my room to check the smoke detector. Maybe they'd informed the previous tenant... I don't know. I was sleeping, and was a little angry to have some stranger opening the door and stepping over me. (The room was very small.)

I guess I'm a landlord now, and I never do anything like that. I send someone in if something is broken, that's it. The house has new water heaters/air conditioners/etc... can't imagine going in to clean the drains. Maybe there was a problem in the building or the area?

[fluffyhamster]

I'm also not sure why they do the drains - an*l-retentiveness, probably.

Didn't your door have a chain, Madeira?

I wish I had an aircon (survive just about with fans, though), especially for the summer months - that's one thing they don't seem to have ever deemed essential (?!). But if they suddenly offered to install one, I honestly think I'd refuse it (again, it's something that to my mind should have been done during construction, or at least be done wherever possible between old tenants moving out and new moving in).

[furiousmilksheikali]

[madeira]

Yes, the place had a door chain-like thing... which I started using immediately afterwards!

My new tenants just asked for extra air conditioners, so I had them installed. At 100,000 yen apiece... so I increased their rent a bit. (They also asked for and received a dog run). You could try asking for an a/c if you really want one, or just have it installed yourself. You'll end up paying for it either way.

(We never used the units that we already had... I hate a/c, and it's not too hot up in the mountains anyways. We have city gas heaters for the winter.)

[gaijinalways]

[fluffyhamster]