Apartment RAGE!!!

[Mendoza]

Wanted to let off some steam and see if anyone else had some nightmare stories to share.

Ive been at my apartment complex for almost two years now and I have to say they reached a new low.

In my first month my ac went out in the middle of july, and where i live thats not something to scoff at. The thing was a window unit, and probably older than me. No way they make the thing anymore.

I call up the emergency maintenance line since smoke started come out of it before i turned it off. Their response, "Its not an emergency we'll get to it on monday".

A few months later water starts coming out of my kitchen roof and my bathroom light fixture.

I call and about an hour later a guy shows up with a bucket. End of action on their part.

Now im in a new unit with a roommate and things were going basically ok, i thought i guess those were just isolated incidents.

Oh, no.

I get a call from my roommate a couple days after christmas, not the apt people mind you, telling me the apt is flooded.

Seems a pipe in the place above us broke. Now they had supposedly fixed said pipes about two months ago when we had water come out of our bathroom ceiling. Guess not.

Were both out of town at the time with no immediate way to get back, so i call the apt people.

Their response "We can't find out anything about the apartment while were on the phone with you". Thankfully the damage is not that bad and the water only got to the bathroom and a small section of the living room and my roommates closet.

When we both get back they have supposedly cleaned the carpets but done nothing to fix the bathroom. The place smells awful and we complain about the smell. The apt people are snippy with us on the phone and begrudgingly send people over to wash the carpet.

A few more days of pestering them and they patch up the bathroom, fix it no, patch it up yes.

Now just today i call and ask why the laundry room is closed.

"The pipes might get damaged from the freeze"

Now their concerned about pipes busting!

Thank god my lease is up at the end of the semester.

[GamerMON]

Fuck renting. I hate fixing shit but it is better than living in a shitty apartment/condo. So many less neighbors in houses.

[Mendoza]

Fuck renting. I hate fixing shit but it is better than living in a shitty apartment/condo. So many less neighbors in houses.

I hear that, but when you make the pittance i do, its not really an option, outside of maybe a trailer.

[GamerMON]

I am a pizza delivery guy and I collect games. So don't go assuming I am some Rockafeller. Maybe not soon but once you know what city you want to live in/have a job in go for it. I bought a foreclosed home, it has its problems but it is much better when you are ignoring them not management the people paid to fix the problems.

[hashiriya1]

My biggest apartment rage story doesn't have to do with the apartment itself or the upkeep, but one tenant that invited trouble. It happened while living in one of the many places I lived in Japan.

I had a neighbor who I guess always took loans from loan sharks (yakuza) but never paid them back right away. These guys come around 2AM to collect. They park their sedans in front of the complex, blocking the driveway, and start banging on the door.

The first time this happened, I was coming home late one night and I thought "Who the fuck is blocking the driveway?? What a douche!" So I got out of my car to find whose cars they were, then I see these guys (about 5 of them) that look like typical chinpira standing in the parking lot throwing rocks at somebody's apartment yelling "KANE KAESE!" which means "Pay us back!". It is then I realized who these guys were. I went back to my car and waited. About 30 minutes went by (it's about 3AM) and they were still doing that. I went back there and asked them if they could move their cars. One of them just said "As soon as this asshole pays us back, we'll leave" Then I said "He's probably not even home!" They said "How do you know? Are you hiding him?" At that point I just said "I don't know him" and I backed off. But one of them was kind enough to move one of the cars so I can get in. It is at that point that the police arrived. I pretended I was doing something with my car so I can eavesdrop. I was curious what they would tell the cops. They told the cops they were there because they were worried about a friend who lived there. The cops knew what these guys were up to, but if you know Japanese cops, they are useless. The cops just left. I went to my apartment and I could still hear them yelling. I just put some headphones on and tried to sleep. I was so irritated.

About a month rolls by and this happens again. I remember it clearly. I was in my apartment watching a movie and I hear this banging. At first I thought it was part of the movie. Then I stopped the movie and the banging continued. I looked out my windows, and those sedans were back again, parked out front. I go outside and tell those guys to keep it down. Again, I get the same answer as last time. "When this asshole pays us back, we will leave." This time an old man who lived upstairs came out and started yelling at them. They pretty much told the old man to fuck off. They were banging on the glass and yelling for another hour or so. I know the guy was home because his parking spot is next to mine and his car was there.

The next day I left my apartment the same time as the guy who owes money and I approached him. I told him that his problems are becoming everybody's problems. He just kind of apologized and didn't say anything else.

Like clockwork, this happened about every 2 weeks, then down to once a week. It got worse and worse, to the point where the guys would post signs on the guy's door and car saying that he owes a lot of money to a lot of people. I talked to the police, but they said it is out of their hands. I didn't expect much from them. I talked to other neighbors, but they are too scared to do anything. I was the only foreigner in this complex (most of my neighbors didn't even know I was a foreigner), so I wanted to handle things like an American would because the Japanese way is don't do anything about it and hopesit goes away. I complained to the landlord, but they, like the police, were useless. This happened for about 3 months until finally the guy up and left.

I was so pissed every time these guys came to collect, but I couldn't blame them, because that guy should pay his debts. There really wasn't anything I could do. Things are done differently in a different culture, and I had to accept it. I consulted with many of my friends and asked them what they would do, but I got the same answer. "Just ignore it, it will eventually go away." Wonder what happened to that guy. Oh well. I was able to sleep in peace after that.



So you can understand the scene. This was taken from google street view.
Red X - Where the guys would park
Green Arrow: Inner parking lot where my assigned space is
Blue circle: The back door of my apartment
Yellow arrow: The front door to my apt, which is right across from the devious debtor.

[Anayo]

Is your rent expenses cheap enough that it's worth it to keep your head low and put up with the BS till you can graduate and move on to something better? Sounds like a sucky situation either way, but I'm just curious.

[Hatta]

Awful nice of the yakuza to come back week after week for their money. Seems like they would have beat the shit out of the guy after a couple times.

[xan_racketBOY_fan]

My biggest apartment rage story doesn't have to do with the apartment itself or the upkeep, but one tenant that invited trouble. It happened while living in one of the many places I lived in Japan.

I had a neighbor who I guess always took loans from loan sharks (yakuza) but never paid them back right away. These guys come around 2AM to collect. They park their sedans in front of the complex, blocking the driveway, and start banging on the door.

The first time this happened, I was coming home late one night and I thought "Who the fuck is blocking the driveway?? What a douche!" So I got out of my car to find whose cars they were, then I see these guys (about 5 of them) that look like typical chinpira standing in the parking lot throwing rocks at somebody's apartment yelling "KANE KAESE!" which means "Pay us back!". It is then I realized who these guys were. I went back to my car and waited. About 30 minutes went by (it's about 3AM) and they were still doing that. I went back there and asked them if they could move their cars. One of them just said "As soon as this asshole pays us back, we'll leave" Then I said "He's probably not even home!" They said "How do you know? Are you hiding him?" At that point I just said "I don't know him" and I backed off. But one of them was kind enough to move one of the cars so I can get in. It is at that point that the police arrived. I pretended I was doing something with my car so I can eavesdrop. I was curious what they would tell the cops. They told the cops they were there because they were worried about a friend who lived there. The cops knew what these guys were up to, but if you know Japanese cops, they are useless. The cops just left. I went to my apartment and I could still hear them yelling. I just put some headphones on and tried to sleep. I was so irritated.

About a month rolls by and this happens again. I remember it clearly. I was in my apartment watching a movie and I hear this banging. At first I thought it was part of the movie. Then I stopped the movie and the banging continued. I looked out my windows, and those sedans were back again, parked out front. I go outside and tell those guys to keep it down. Again, I get the same answer as last time. "When this asshole pays us back, we will leave." This time an old man who lived upstairs came out and started yelling at them. They pretty much told the old man to fuck off. They were banging on the glass and yelling for another hour or so. I know the guy was home because his parking spot is next to mine and his car was there.

The next day I left my apartment the same time as the guy who owes money and I approached him. I told him that his problems are becoming everybody's problems. He just kind of apologized and didn't say anything else.

Like clockwork, this happened about every 2 weeks, then down to once a week. It got worse and worse, to the point where the guys would post signs on the guy's door and car saying that he owes a lot of money to a lot of people. I talked to the police, but they said it is out of their hands. I didn't expect much from them. I talked to other neighbors, but they are too scared to do anything. I was the only foreigner in this complex (most of my neighbors didn't even know I was a foreigner), so I wanted to handle things like an American would because the Japanese way is don't do anything about it and hopesit goes away. I complained to the landlord, but they, like the police, were useless. This happened for about 3 months until finally the guy up and left.

I was so pissed every time these guys came to collect, but I couldn't blame them, because that guy should pay his debts. There really wasn't anything I could do. Things are done differently in a different culture, and I had to accept it. I consulted with many of my friends and asked them what they would do, but I got the same answer. "Just ignore it, it will eventually go away." Wonder what happened to that guy. Oh well. I was able to sleep in peace after that.



So you can understand the scene. This was taken from google street view.
Red X - Where the guys would park
Green Arrow: Inner parking lot where my assigned space is
Blue circle: The back door of my apartment
Yellow arrow: The front door to my apt, which is right across from the devious debtor.

Whoa, fun read. Is this common in Japan? Felt like I was reading some sort of movie script.

[Upsidedown Fuji]

To Hashiraya1:

Great story. Too bad you had to live through that crap. It must have been even worse living in the corner apartment in a Leo-palace. I've lived in one too. Just regular foot traffic and cooking make a decent racket between the paper thin walls.

To add to the bad Japanese apartment rage tangent, I also lived in a crappy apartment my first time in Japan about 7 years back. When I was studying abroad as a university exchange student I was placed in a 50 year old Japanese 6 unit apartment building. About half the rooms were full of Indonesian students who happened to be wannabe tuner racers. I went to Gunma University which is a stone throw's distance away from most of the main circuits featured in Initial-D (Akagi, Haruna, etc.)

These guys always blocked parked on the curb blocking the apartments and revved their crappy cars in the middle of the night. My walls were incredibly thin in my old-ass apartment and I could hear just about everything from all sides of my neighbors around me down to a pencil being dropped on the tatami floor. My neighbors also happened to be devout muslims which meant 3 loud ass prayers a day regardless of what time it was. I have nothing against the religion but they never got the hint that their call to prayer chant or whatever could be heard literally 3 city blocks away and I was directly right under it. Totally not cool. It's not like I sang hymns every Sunday morning at the top of my lungs...

So long story short no matter how much complaining I'd do with the apt owner, nothing would ever get done. I even confronted the neighbors about it but they just acted as if they knew less Japanese than me when I knew they were there for the school of medicine which requires quite a bit of comprehension. Oh well, about 10 months of sleepless nights were had then.

If you live in Japan or any other apartment in the world, MAKE SURE YOUR WALLS ARE SOUNDPROOFED BETTER THAN A PORTAPOTTY. Also, move out at the first sign of trouble if you can afford it. It will save you headaches in the long run.

[Bradtemple87]

Geez what a crazy situation