A shared house is common in all countries to rent a room for those who have a small budget for a living place. The biggest and most attractive advantages of shared house are that required conditions and resident screening is much easier to satisfy than the one of a general apartment in Japan
Initial costs which worry you the most because of big investment tend to be much cheaper than that of a general apartment. Saving your living cost is a very important point for especially young people to survive in the society independently. This cheapness and easiness to pass a screening are a reasonable lifeline to support those who have relatively unstable career design to survive.
On the other hand, recently there are a type of shared house which adds good facility, amusement and community privileges to a house in exchange for setting relatively more expensive rent than a general shared house, which you can gain a very precious experience which you can’t do if you live in an apartment by yourself.
Contents
To avoid troubles after you move in beforehand, you have to understand the contract type and its tendency.
If you rent a regular apartment, its contract type is classified classified as “regular lease agreement“. If you rent a room in a shared house, its contract type is classified as “fixed lease agreement“.
Basically a shard house type contract, there are strong restrictions in return for a short contractual period, in contrast to regular apartment contract.
For example,
- Contractual period is 3 months to 6 months
- Contract is not renewable
- Contract is not cancellable
You can see the following details down below.
Regular lease agreement ( regular apartment)
| Contract type | Regular lease agreement |
|---|---|
| Contractual period | Basically 1 year, most of apartment regulates the period for 2 years Indefinite lease period. (If your lease contract is less than 1 year. its contract is looked as “Indefinite lease period contract“) |
| Contract renewal | Possible. Your contract will be renewed automatically without justifiable reasons |
| Contract cancellation | Possible, if there is a special agreement about cancellation in a lease contract, you must follow it to go through procedure |
| Rent change | Landlord can change the price of a rent freely regardless of a special agreement |
| Contract type | Fixed lease agreement |
|---|---|
| Contractual period | Less than 1 year, basically 3 months to 6 months |
| Contract renewal | Not renewable. Lease contract is terminated at expiry of contractual period. If you want to live continuously, you make re-contract. |
| Contract cancellation | Basically not cancelable. However, there is a case where you can cancel a contract even without a special agreement if your apartment area is 200 square meters. However there is also a case where you need to make a lease payment to the expiry day. Actually, most of lease contracts of shared house mention a cancellation clause, the majority of shared houses allows you to cancel even during contractual period |
| Rent change | Basically not changeable during contractual period. There is a case where a landlord can change a rent when making a re-contract with a resident in accordance of a special agreement. |
Explanation of terminology and things you need to know
Contractual period
A contractual period is a term that you must stay. Whether you can move out or not during a contractual period is in accordance with a special agreement you concluded with a landlord.
There are various types of a contractual period. Some cases are that the first contract is for 3 months and after that, you can change 1 year contract. Other cases are that you can make 2 years contract after the minimum period contract.
No matter how long a contractual period is, there is a minimum stay term which is regulated on a contract. Of course, a special agreement mentions cancellation conditions for this minimum stay term.
Especially, even if a contract doesn’t mention that no penalties are imposed to you when you move out during this minimum stay term, you should be carefully if there is a factor to compensate for the cancellation on a contract because of your one-sided offer.
For example, a shared house you contract now regulates 3 months minimum stay term but if you inform a landlord that you move out within one month, a landlord claims you to pay a rent of rest of 2 months. Later, when you check the special agreement carefully, that condition is mentioned on a an agreement with deliberately small words in its corner. You couldn’t help accepting this meekly
Some landlords or real estate agents doesn’t tell you deliberately your important facts which is unreasonable for you to know beforehand in order to collect and attract more people to move in. If you receive an agreement or a contract, take a deep breath, take it back to where you stay now and read as carefully as not overlooking any words on it. I don’t recommend you sign on a contract on the spot.
A special agreement
A special agreement is made when there is additional conditions other than the conditions mentioned on a regular contract.
A lease agreement has two types agreements which are
- Standard agreement
- Optional agreement
Compulsory agreement are the one you must keep
Optional agreement are applied supportively to the conditions which are not written on a regular contract. Optional agreement can be prioritized to the conditions of compulsory agreement if there is an agreement about a change of the conditions of compulsory agreement between a contractor and a contractee.
So the conditions which is newly made by a mutual agreement between a contractor and a contractee is called “special agreement”
In case of shared house, for example, if a regular fixed lease contract (standard agreement) mention that no cancellation is accepted during minimum term stay, this special agreement (optional agreement) gives effect to ease this condition
preferentially as you can cancel even during minimum stay term by a mutual agreement.
However, actually special agreement is not made mutually but a landlord or a real estate agent add conditions one-sidedly. All you can do for a special agreement is reading them all carefully and signing on.
Even if there is an additional condition about cancellation written on a agreement with very small words on purpose which you don’t realize, if you sign on it, you are looked as accepting an agreement.
Contract renewal
You can’t basically renew a contract of shared house. However, you don’t have to leave your room at the expiry date. You can stay continuously by making a re-contract which both of you understand.
If you live in a type of a shared house that requires you to pay security deposit of a couple of months as initial costs when you moved in, your deposit will be returned back temporarily when your contract is expired. There is a case where your deposit is deducted in the name of maintenance of your used room.
When you make re-contract, you give the deposit back again. If your deposit is deducted, you should add some on the deducted deposit.
Contractor’s intention is strongly prioritized to re-contract. If a contractor says no re-contract is accepted, you only understand his intention. Whether it is possible to make a re-contract or not must be asked beforehand when you firstly move in.
Contract cancellation
As I explained at contractual period above, cancellation conditions about minimum stay term regulated in a fixed lease agreement are usually mentioned on a special agreement.
However, there is a exceptional case where if your apartment area is 200 square you can cancel a contract even without a special agreement by a law.
There is a case where you are required to pay a rent of rest of months that you were expected to stay for.
If you have a possibility to cancel a contract during minimum stay term, you should find a shared house which complies with a condition that accepts cancellation during minimum stay term on a special agreement. If there is no additional conditions about cancellation on a special agreement, you don’t have to pay those expenses.
Rent change
Unless there is a mutual agreement about the increase of monthly rent on a special agreement, landlord can rase rase the rent price in accordance with the agreement during contractual term.
However, when you make a re-contract newly with a landlord, it is possible for landlord to indicate more expensive rent than the one you used to pay on a contract.
Understand the basic conditions of a lease contract
What I wrote here is the very standard conditions of a lease contract which form the basis of every single lease contract of shared house. Basically, you must understand the whole contents of a contract you are going to conclude. But I think it’s difficult for foreigners to understand it perfectly as just reading without knowing this basic conditions of a lease contract.
If you know this, you can avoid basic troubles related to a fixed lease contract. If you do sign on a contract, you must presume to be at a disadvantage without knowing it. What protects yourself is how carefully you read a contract and how well you understand it with anticipation of unexpected bad situations.
Remember, all the contracts you face in Japan is written in Japanese. If you don’t understand Japanese but you need to live in Japan, you can’t protect yourself without even knowing the basic conditions of a lease contract. Please read this and understand your risk on concluding a lease contract in Japan.