parasitegirl | How it works (Reply)

Today I brought my apartment forms to work so I could ask a few questions about a couple of the boxes I couldn’t figure out how to fill out. Overall I’m sort of amazed at how much I do understand. All done!

A facebook reader asked me:“How many rituals are involved in this? Do you have to bring a gift? Does it need to be wrapped just so? Does signing involve those little wood cut blocks with the kanji on them?”

I thought you might have questions about this, so here’s the skinny:

1. Application. This is the step I have now done twice. It involves one form, my info and my signer’s info. After this gets the ok we move on to…

2. Legal explanation of everything under the sun. I did this the first time, with Mrs. N’s help. After this they give me the three mini-booklets of official apartment contract forms. Luckily the first round never involved my boss filing these out, or they’d have to print new ones. As it was I dropped by the rental agency to pick up a second copy of application number 1 before taking the train to Ginza to sign with Wataguy.

3. The contract(s) and the contract payment. These are two booklets of contracts and a credit card form (technically, with the new system, I get a credit card and the credit card company, not the signer, is responsible for hunting me down if I financially screw them.) I don’t intend to use the credit card or keep it in my wallet, but I do intend to use it so I can hook up my Japan-based bank account to Paypal. Paypal doesn’t let me hook up my Japan-based bank account right now because my credit card is issued in America.

Anyway, it is at this stage that Wataguy use our hanko/inkan (“little wood cut blocks with the kanji on them”) except now they are made of some sort of plastic. Wataguy, like many Japanese, have multiple hanko…so on Monday he had to go to his city call and make sure he had the forms proving the hanko he was using was his legally registered one…this will be included with our papers. I don’t have to do this, I had to prove my residency and such with my alien card and passport.

The forms involve multiple hanko stamps including stamping where the papers are joined together (between the pages) to prove that everything we are signing is in the proper order and haven’t been re-arranged.

The contract payment is: Rent for August, rent for the part of July I am living there (15 days worth) , a one-time fee to cover all the repairs and fixing up that goes on before I move in…this is in place of the usual key-money and security deposit and equal a month and a half of rent…half a month’s rent to my agent, fire insurance, a fumigation fee….this comes to…257,170yen.

4. The day before I move in I get my keys. Before this day I will need to arrange the switching over of my utilities and such.

5. I move. I should probably buy a neighbor gift for my new under-neighbor and introduce myself.

And that’s the procedure...

And they get my firstborn, who they will promptly sell or rent to a gaijin-brothel or English-Conversation School. I don’t really know how that works.

Later today I’ll ask my supervisor to help me figure out the apartment-leaving forms…because my current company sent me some things with handwritten notes and handwriting can be a pain in the ass. I am including my threatening (and translated) “damnit, I have to move because the police want me away from your creepy tenant for my own safety, so you’d better not screw me out of all my security deposit because I’m pissed enough to take you to court.”…because it’s always worth trying.

I don’t move until July 17^th but I promise a reduction in apartment-stress postings soon.

More info on terms used in renting:http://www.gcn-osaka.jp/housing/hs01-06-revised.html