Stu The Plumber....

Stuart Ablett

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15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
We, or I guess I should say, my wife's mother, own the building we live in, there are 8 apartments, four small "Studio" type, and 4 larger 1LDK (which means One bedroom, Living room, Dining room and Kitchen). Not a large place by North American standards, but lots of room for one person or a couple. We have a contract with a larger national real estate company, they take care of finding us tenants and all the legal stuff as well as tax stuff etc. they deal with the tenants not us. The building was built in 2001, and started renting in October of that year, so we are coming up on the building being 9 years old. There is the usual wear and tear, that is to be expected, but somethings are beyond that.

We had a young couple living in apartment #301, they were professionals, I'm not sure what he did, but the wife is a doctor at the Tokyo Women's University Hospital just up the street.

When they moved out they did not bother cleaning the place, and and there is some damage, the sink in the bathroom is busted. How the did that exactly is a mystery.

More later, got to run, sorry..... :eek:
 
The real estate company dropped the ball, the only charged them $350 for cleaning, as I said, they left the place really dirty and they also left some bags of garbage on the veranda :doh:

When you rent an apartment here, you usually have to pay:

2 months rent to the Real Estate
1 months rent damage deposit (refundable)
2 months rent Key Money
1st month rent
-------------------
Total of 6 months rent.

We have fairly high standards, our real estate does background checks and we have been fortunate and we have only had one really bad tenant in 9 years.

To get and keep good tenants, we have priced our apartment about 10% below the local average for this area, and we do NOT charge the two months Key Money, and the real estate only charges a one month fee, this adds up to a considerable discount for the tenant.

Let's say the rent is $1700 a month, which is a fairly reasonable price in a newer building, with the amenities we have in this area.

The lease is two years, so assuming you get your damage deposit back and you were to move out after two years, you would have paid:

$3400 to the Real Estate
$1700 damage deposit (refundable)
$3400 Key Money
$40800 24 month rent
-------------------
$49300 over two years, which works out to $2055 a month, all in.

Our desire to keep the places rented, which makes better economic sense over the long run, we come in substantially below that, our rent is only $1500 a month:

$1500 to the Real Estate
$1500 damage deposit (refundable)
$0 Key Money
$36000 24 month rent
-------------------
$39000 over two years, which works out to $1625 a month, all in.

That is a $430 bucks a month cheaper that what the real estate says the average for our area is, and they would know, they manage thousands of apartments in Tokyo alone.

Our plan has worked, as the longest we have had an apartment empty is two months, and this is usually in a case like this, the tenant moved out half way through the month and there was some work to be done.

I know other landlords that insist on the two months key money and full price, they often have apartments sitting empty for six months to a year at a time. I'll also mention that in 9 years, we have not raised our rents, even though everything else has gone up.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought it might be interesting to see how it is done over here.......
 
Back to the Plumbing stuff :D

Like I said the sink in the bath room is busted.....

old_sink_1.jpg old_sink_2.jpg old_sink_3.jpg

..... I figure they dropped something on it, but what really bothers me is that they tried to get away with not telling us, they did not own up to it.

I think that the real estate company should go after them, but they don't, OK then the real estate company should pony up for the difference in the amount of damage deposit they withheld ($350) and the cost of the sink replacement plus cleaning up the room..... That discussion is on going.... :rolleyes:

We got the estimate, there are a few other things, the shower faucet in the bath is leaking, it won't shut off, fair enough, it is 9 years old, so that needs replacing, also there is a vent in the wall where the fridge stands, the one we have is perfectly fine, but is stainless steel and they say a bit hard to open, well you only open it or close it a couple of times a year, close it in the winter and close it if a big typhoon is coming :D The estimate is also for cleaning up the apartment and getting rid of the garbage.

Here are the prices.....

$480 Sink Unit
$120 Changing the water pipes for the sink
$420 Shower Faucet
$40 Change the Vent
$230 Plumbing (?)
$80 Getting rid of the garbage on the veranda
--------------
$1370

That does not include the $350 cleaning charge :eek:

The real estate wants us to pay the $1370, now I think that half of that is because their inspector guy who is supposed to inspect the apartment before he signs off on giving back the deposit missed the garbage on the veranda, and the busted sink, but like I said, that is an on going discussion :rolleyes:

Now what is happening is they are saying they cannot rent the apartment in this state, fair enough, so we should pay, to have things fixed, then they will discuss the "Who is to blame" part....... yeah right.

I went to Super Viva home and I bought a new sink unit $, a new bath room shower faucet, and a new plastic vent that is easy to open and close.

$210 Sink Unit
$0 Changing the water pipes for the sink
$128 Shower Faucet
$15 Change the Vent
$0 Plumbing (?)
$0 Getting rid of the garbage on the veranda
--------------
$353

Yep a whole $1071 cheaper, it took me about on hour to take the old sink unit out, clean the floor, and install the new one, another 30 minutes for the bath room shower faucet, the plastic vent seconds to swap it out.

I think the Monster-In-Law is feeling like buying me a new set of grinding wheels for my slow speed grinder :rolleyes: :D


new_sink1.jpg new_sink2.jpg
New sink unit.

Still, I think she is getting off dead easy, don't you? :dunno:
 
Well i saw this before your final post. And my thinking then and is now that the real estate company is liable period. You employed them to do a job. They have failed miserably. In more than one instance from what i can see. They get good loyal business from you and have the benefit of a really reasonable property to rent and manage. Its time they eat the cost to make sure they pull up their socks or you should go looking for a new company. I would be mad with the apparent carelessness. The difference is the costs well i can understand that when they are outsourcing and probably loading the costs with a service/handling charge. But the neglegence on the fundamental job you engage them to handle thats unexcusable without compensation.

As Mil well from what you have told us about her, I just dont get her. She should be the happiest Mil in the country with a Sil like you. So load up seems it wont make a difference either way.:D:thumb: Add that additional One Way support:rofl:
 
Lucky that she has someone like you around Stu. What would it have cost to bring in a plumber or other tradesmen to do the work?

Thanks Drew, I too think she is lucky, but she does not :dunno:

The additional cost would be $1017. Now that is all part of the whole renovation, which is the wall paper stuff too, now that I've fixed everything but the wall paper I'm really curious if they will charge us the same price they quoted for the wall paper with the other stuff too :huh:

The quote on the wall paper for the whole apartment is $1295 which works out to $14 a square meter. As I hate....... HATE doing wall paper, I'm happy to have that done by them, and pay for it! :thumb:

Cheers!
 
Rob my wife and I agree with you, and even the MIL are in agreement :eek:

We will work things out with them one way or the other, I see them eating these charges, but if they are the actual costs to me of putting things right, like $400, it will be an easier swallow.

The rules have changed too, next time we have a tenant leaving, I will be doing the walk through with the inspection guy.

The joys of being a landlord. :rolleyes: :wave:

Thanks for letting me share this!:thumb:
 
Oh yeah, I wanted to add, the couple that damaged the sink and then did not tell us, or anyone, and let it slip right by...?

Like I said, she is a doctor and he is some sort of business man, combined income (they have to put it in the contract, and that is one thing the real estate company checks) is well over $200,000 a year......

You would think if you were making that kind of money and you broke something like the sink, you would just fess up to it and have it fixed :dunno:

Some people's kids :eek: :rolleyes: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
Looking at the sink, it's hard to figure how it got broken there. I could see it breaking along an edge, or on the ledge where the faucets are, but not in the middle of the bowl. I wonder what they dropped (undoubtedly something heavy and hard) to break the china in that spot?
 
I agree Jim, most things you would have in a bathroom, say a large can of hairspray, would not do that kind of damage, I would think, also these sinks are very well made, the china is NOT thin, it is thick, as the sink with cabinet attached is HEAVY!

Who knows, maybe it was just a freak thing :dunno:
 
Thanks Drew, I too think she is lucky, but she does not :dunno:

The additional cost would be $1017. Now that is all part of the whole renovation, which is the wall paper stuff too, now that I've fixed everything but the wall paper I'm really curious if they will charge us the same price they quoted for the wall paper with the other stuff too :huh:

The quote on the wall paper for the whole apartment is $1295 which works out to $14 a square meter. As I hate....... HATE doing wall paper, I'm happy to have that done by them, and pay for it! :thumb:

Cheers!

Oh now I see why the referal to Monster in law. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

I feel for ya Stu in regards to the wall paper. I did a removal job for a friends mom a few months back and there are reasons that I don't put wall paper up anywhere. Taking it off I just feel like doing this :bang::bang: but then I would have to fix the wall board :rofl::rofl:
 
I rent out some apts, and reading this is quite discouraging.
A physician and professional person leaving an apt like a couple of hood rats, its awful. Shame on them.
I personally dont fix anything in any of the apts, I use a handyman whos work is adequate, and his price is right.
You MIL is quite lucky to have you doing work for her.
 
Many years ago when I worked on a plumbing service truck and did allot of work for a real estate company I found that in many instances the more money people made the more they tried to say that it wasn't their fault when something was broken. The poor ones who hardly survived after paying rent and groceries apologized for things they had no control over. The professionals with the messiest apartments - stewardesses. The real estate company rented over 2,000 units so I got to see quite a number of them in the 6 years that I worked on the service truck.
 
If I were a renter again and in a position to rent in Tokyo, I would like to have you as a landlord... sounds like you are fair and reasonable with your tenants... they should be fair and reasonable in return.

Back when I was a rentor, I usually left a house in better shape than when I rented it. Thinking back, I remember when the wife and I moved back to Houston from AZ, we rented a house in a very substantial neighborhood, from a lady who worked as a legal assistant to a fairly prominent lawyer. The house was nice, but was a rent house and had a few things going wrong... the wallpaper in the dressing area of the master bedroom was falling off the wall, there was a hole in both bathrooms at the edge of the shower...can't for the life of me figure how anyone could get holes there... one shower had a curtain over a tub, the other was a fully enclosed shower with glass walls. The hot tub was filthy and would not heat, even though the landlord swore that it was service recently...the service people told us they had not been out to the house in over a year.
I fixed all that, fixed the deck that had a number of bad boards, painted the deck and around the hot tub, replaced the disposal unit at my expense, worked on the garage door opener, but never got that working right... it was installed wrong and I didn't take it down to re-install... we didn't use the garage anyway except as a storage unit.

I kept the lawn up and mowed it the week before we moved so I could move the mower to the new house... which is another story all together...

The landlord didn't go over to the house for 10 days after we moved and claimed all kinds of things wrong on the house... the lawn not mowed, dirty carpet (I went back after the house was empty and shampooed the carpets), the wall paper was off the wall in the master bedroom. (I took it down and painted - with her permission and offered to rehang wall paper if she wanted.. she just had to pick out something for me to put up.. she never did)... long story (somewhat shorter) she refused to give me back my cleaning deposit. She even wrote me a letter on her boss's letterhead so I would think he was representing her... I could have gone to small claims court to reclaim the money, but would have lost a day or two of work with that....

I figured she was out for what she could get, and probably had spent the deposit money and didn't have it to return... it's supposed to be escrowed for the purpose of refunding when warranted.

The previous house, the one we moved from into the one above, the landlord had taken my payments for 6 months, but didn't pay his mortgage on the house we were renting... the house was repossessed by the bank and we were asked to move since the bank wasn't interested in the house as a rental unit.

I'm glad I own now and don't have to deal with land lords... but you sound like a pretty nice guy to rent from...
 
Thank you Chuck, I think we are good people to rent from as well, we have been renters too, so we know both sides of the story, having been cheated by bad landlords and treated like family (a good family!) by others.

I'm paying it forward the best I can.

Cheers!
 
Hi stuart,

I think you can fix that broken sink by yourself by charging the amount from the security deposit. You must have checked everything before they were leaving the house. In my area its common that people come for rent and leave your home uncleaned and dirty. A plumber can fix it up and get you rid of that broken area. :thumb:
 
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