Mansion Deposit Back?

After 8 years I will be moving out of my mansion in Nagoya city. One careful owner in a 1995 circa build, so it hasn't seen too much hard wear and tear in an already fairly aged building.

I paid a whopping 400,000 yen deposit on it, and not even new tatami when I moved in.

The block was bought by a new owner, decent folk, some 4 years back.

What are my chances of getting anything back?

read the contract.
it is not changed.

Ken

Not the clearest answer I've ever received. It reads like Haiku!

When my Japanese wife moved out of her apartment, the deposit was forfeited and she, nor her family were even challenging that. The apartment was fine was she moved out and as good as when she had moved in. I was upset by it at the time as it was a lot of money, but didn't want to create a problem for my wife.
I was told that the deposit often really was seen as a fee by the landlord and that most people accepted the claim of the landlord of non-specified costs related to cleaning, painting, etc (all of which never happened) "obviously" totaling up to the amount of the deposit. :-(

How much is the monthly rent? Seeing that the amount is big, I wonder if that "deposit" consisted of "deposit" (usually 2 months worth) and so-called "key money" (2 months worth). The former MAY be refunded at least partially, while the latter never does.

I don't think the change to the new owner would really change much, but if the whole amount is really a deposit (subject to refund), you might ask the landlord how much you might get back, and if they say zero, you COULD argue that it was an aged building to begin with, that you have not done any damage, it's all been just regular "wear & tear" (which the landlord is supposed to pay for), that you didn't get new tatami & wallpaper (if true) when you moved in, etc., to see how they react.

When we last moved out of a rented apartment, we knew the landlord liked us, the estate agent guy liked us too, and after having a look around our place (where we lived for... close to 7, 8 years, so the regular wear & tear was very visible, but we had not done any damage beyond the normal), I remember the estate agent guy negotiated about a third of the deposit to be refunded back to us.

There have been court cases (for local tenants) where the court ruled in favor of the tenant, who demanded a refund, claiming that it was the landlord's responsibility to pay for cleaning, changing wallpaper & tatami, and usual wear & tear), but people don't really fight for it, so for the rest what Joe posted is the practice... :(

the system is different between Kanto (Tokyo area) and Kansai (Osaka area). I don't know what system is in Nagoya. please read the contract you made.
I think you wonder that you can get some refund, because the owner was changed and the new owner may refuse to pay the refund. generally speaking, even if the owners were changed, the contracts are still valid. this is so called as 持ち回り.

there are two moneys. 礼金 and 敷金.
礼金: you can't get any refund.
敷金: you can get some refund. the owner may subtract some amount, when you get refund. For example, the owner may subtract 20%, and you can get 80% refund.
all those points are written in the contract clearly.

AK & Ken

Thank you.

Ken, it is 敷金, which is equivalent to 4 months' rent. I will have someone check the contract to see if it specifies clearly what this means in terms of any refund due.