So I received a letter from the real estate company of the mansion that I rent 2-3 weeks ago which comes up in March/April, so I didn't open it until just now as I assumed it was just the same old renewal process of 1 month contract renewal fee but this time they decided to up the rent from 153,000 to 195,000 including additional 42,000 deposit for the difference. I've been living at the same mansion for 6 years now in Shibuya-ku,, and in it they wrote something like "the cost of building management and maintainance management have increased, and residential rents have continued to rise. As the owner, we have tried our best to avoid raising the rent as much as possible, but we have been forced to do so. As the lease term is coming to an end we would like to ask that you revise the rent in line with the contract renewal. "
The renewal is March 19 and the return date deadline to sign/agree to this is February 1st.
So I'm wondering if a anyone had a similar case, or any advice would be much appreciated.
A 2000-6000jpy increase would seem acceptable to me, but 43,000 sounds wack. It's a rather new building though, built around 2017.
During my 6 years here, the property agent / building owner seems to have changed 3x, so each time I had to sign a different contract, and the mansion next to mine was not rented out for at least half a year so I don't think there's a super high demand as it's about a 17 minutes walk to the nearest station.
Also, I was thinking about moving out to a larger place, but I'm worried that I won't have the energy to do it so quickly, if my contract renews March 19, when would the latest be that I could move out if I do happen to find something new? Do most people move out right before their contract renewal or is there some leeway?
by Alex_Bz
20 comments
Just say “no” and give the counter offer.
Increase in rent doesn’t mean increase in deposit so say “no”
This is if you are not on a fixed contract (auto renewal contract)
>we would **like to ask** that you revise the rent
So just say no, sign nothing, and optionally negotiate an acceptable increase.
Mine went up 5000. Didn’t give a fuck, as I assumed it was going to be more. The place I am in now is run by a company, so I doubt there is as much leverage if there is just an owner.
I live in an UR apartment (“danchi”). My rent is 110,000 a month and I also also just received a notice of an increase in administration costs (NOT rent): from 2,300 to 2,900. That is a total increase of 0.5% in my full rental costs.
30% is a ridiculous increase.
>Also, I was thinking about moving out to a larger place, but I’m worried that I won’t have the energy to do it so quickly, if my contract renews March 19, when would the latest be that I could move out if I do happen to find something new? Do most people move out right before their contract renewal or is there some leeway?
Look into your contract. My contract says that after the first renewal I can cancel the contract at any time with a 1-month notice without any penalty or fees etc. So theoretically you could do the renewal (pay the renewal fee) and then move out at a more convenient timing. Also, usually they can pro-rate your last rent, meaning if you set your move out date on the 20th of the month you’ll only pay rent for 20 days, not the whole month.
I rent a place and I’m also increase the price by 10,000. Maintenance is getting very expensive!
>we would like to ask that you revise the rent
No. You don’t have to agree to rent increases.
Check your contract, if it auto-renews (a lot do), they can’t raise rent without your approval. If so, tell them to go pound sand.
[https://suumo.jp/article/oyakudachi/oyaku/chintai/fr_money/yachin_neage/#tboc2](https://suumo.jp/article/oyakudachi/oyaku/chintai/fr_money/yachin_neage/#tboc2)
Looks like you’ll need to negotiate with the owner or go to the consumer protection agency and see if they can do something about it?
As others have shared, you do not need to accept any rent increases, but it would be good to negotiate in good faith.
The other concern you have is, if your landlord might choose not to renew your lease at the end of the term. Whether or not this is possible depends largely upon the type of tenancy agreement you have.
You might like to read up a little about “法定更新” (statutory/legal renewal?). If your contract is one that allows renewal, *and* you are both unable to agree to the renewal terms by the end of the current contact, “法定更新” occurs and the contract is automatically renewed with the original terms, but without a specified period.
[https://ielove-cloud.jp/blog/entry-03385/](https://ielove-cloud.jp/blog/entry-03385/)
Simply put, for a renewable lease, the landlord can only refuse renewal with an extremely *good reason*. If the tenant does not accept, the landlord has to get a court order. It is supposedly very difficult (almost impossible?) for a landlord to successfully do so.
I would recommend consulting with a lawyer however, and not just rely on some random reddit/blog post.
Okay this is outright abuse. A small increase is expected, but not THAT MUCH. Stand your ground and negotiate a better price that benefits all. Otherwise, move.
Same thing happened with daito kentaku. Just downloaded a template letter saying to” F off basically and I’m not paying” in japanese and they renewed me under the old contract. Needless to say I got out of there after another year or so and bought my own little house for 5 Millon or so and have never looked back. Got sick of all the koshinryo and other tricks these companies play on one.
That’s a crazy hike, but legally you can actually refuse the increase and keep paying your current rent. Since they can’t evict you easily, I’d definitely push back hard on this one.
If you wanted to enter a negotiation with him it might help to calculate it from surrounding properties.
A friend of mine told me his landlord demanded higher rent with a similar argument to your landlord’s. The LL sent data showing places in the area at higher rent, but they were bigger than my mate’s.
So when calculated the per meter price, they were in line with my friend’s original rate. The new rate he wanted to charge put it over the per meter of the other examples he gave.
So they gave up asking for higher rent. In this case, LL tripped himself up wi his own argument.
I’m not saying this story perfectly aligns with yours but just that a little investigation goes a long way.
As others have pointed out here, “no” is an effective response.
I recently went through this, although it was not 30%. Background, I live in a desirable area and in a very desirable tower mansion where units don’t even last a day when they become available.
I was only here 2 years and they asked to increase the rent by 6%. They claimed tax increase, maintenance, etc. 6% of my rent is quite a bit in yen and I thought it was crazy after living here just 2 years.
Anyways, I negotiated back and forth and got it down to a 1.75% increase. I’m nearly positive they’ll try again in 2 years, but oh well.
I consulted a friend who is in real estate and she had said refusing to sign and saying no will surely end in no renewal, so I didn’t want to gamble with that as seeing my building is so popular.
I would recommend negotiating, because 30% is insane. Maybe they throw that out there knowing people will negotiate. Good luck!
Eyy, same thing happened to us a few years ago, 12k -> 17k. We said fuck that and just moved out. I saw our room listed on Suumo for 20k after…
We didn’t try to negotiate though. Everyone here is saying you can say no, but can’t they just say that if you don’t agree to the new rent they won’t renew? I was under the impression that you can only decline the rent increase if it’s during your current contract, not when up for renewal.
Since you have a 1-month renewal, typically it sounds like you’re on a fixed term lease. Just don’t agree are talking about perpetual leases so be very careful to know what you have.
That being said, if you don’t come to a mutual agreement they can terminate / not renew and you’re out of there. That being said, usually they know it costs money for both parties so whatever they’ve offered you should be able to negotiate it down halfway.
Same thing happened to me last year, and the negotiation didn’t work out. So I bought a house.
Contract renewals are illegal in most prefectures, but that’s how the rental agencies make money, as the actual owners of the properties collect most of the rent and so the agencies have to charge other fees to make profit.
So it’s not the actual agency that’s increasing the rent, but probably the property owner and in turn, the agency will also make more on the increased fee.
In Saitama, I rented a house and had to renew my contract every two years. Since rent was dirt cheap, I didn’t mind paying the renewal fee, but I did want to be rewarded for my loyalty for living and maintaining the property for two almost ten years. After about the 6th year mark I was able to lower my monthly rental fee (by a meager 2000 yen) by negotiating with the property owner directly. The irony is, after I moved out, no one wanted to rent the old house and the owner had a vacant house with no tenants for two years. They recently sold the house, which was basically an akia and it’s been torn down.
Anyways, in your situation, I would seriously consider talking to the owner directly since you have been a good tenant and ask for a rent deduction. You can threaten to move out, and they risk having the property so vacant. Sounds like you might be moving out anyways. But let’s be real, if you have been in Japan for so long and plan on staying long term, you should probably consider buying something instead of throwing 200,000 at these greedy people every month.
When I lived in a rental. Management wanted to increase rent by 7%. I googled value and rent average in my area and city. And found the average increase is 3% so I printed a graph showing that and said 3% reasonable. They agreed but said after 2 years they’ll request increase. I said fine if reasonable. Luckily I moved 3 months later 🤣
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