Miss a Meeting, Pay ¥70,000? Resident Reveals Bitter Feud at Japan’s First Self-Managed Condo

Fined ¥70,000 for missing a residents’ meeting

Apartment Building A, located in Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture. The door of a fourth-floor unit was covered with an astonishing number of notices bearing harsh messages such as “Nuisance—Move Out” and “Get Out Now.”

The residents living in that unit told FRIDAY about what they describe as a series of mysterious rules imposed by the building’s management association and the bitter legal disputes that have followed.

More than ten civil lawsuits have been filed between unit owners and the management association, with the conflict eventually escalating into a class-action lawsuit brought by the unit owners. Attorney Yasuhiro Orita, former president of the Japan Society for Condominium Studies and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, sighed as he said:

“I’ve been involved in countless condominium management disputes over the years, but I can’t recall ever seeing a management system as distorted as this one.”

Building A was completed in 1995 and contains 47 units. At first glance, it appears to be an entirely ordinary condominium. Behind the scenes, however, a fierce battle has unfolded between the management association and a group of dissatisfied unit owners who formed a voluntary organization called the Volunteer Association.

According to Yukio Hanada, the group’s representative, the conflict began around April 2024.

“The management association signed a contract with a lawyer—someone who had only just been admitted to the bar—and agreed to pay them an unusually high monthly retainer of more than ¥150,000. I was concerned that the money would come out of the building’s maintenance fees, so I told another resident that the retainer fee seems unreasonable.

Apparently word got back to them. B, the administrator who effectively runs the management association, summoned me late at night and, on two separate occasions, threatened me by saying things like, ‘I’ll punch you.’

The following month, I was billed ¥70,000 as a cooperation fee and another ¥11,000 as an administrative management fee. After that, they continued demanding various unexplained charges.

When I refused to pay, they claimed I had fallen behind on my maintenance fees and filed a lawsuit against me. The plaintiff is Administrator B, and the case is still ongoing. Three other unit owners who, like me, opposed the management association and refused to pay what they considered illegitimate charges have also been sued by B.”

The building’s overall management had previously been handled by an outside company, but in 2022 it shifted to a system of independent self-management run by the condominium association’s members. Since then, Building A has promoted itself as “Japan’s first independently self-managed condominium.” According to residents, however, increasingly baffling rules have been introduced.

Examples include:

◎ The association’s general meetings, where members discuss matters such as the use of maintenance fees, were held more than 20 times every year between 2023 and 2025. In one year alone, 33 meetings were convened under titles such as “Extraordinary General Meeting” and “Emergency Extraordinary General Meeting” (most condominiums hold only one or two meetings annually). Unit owners who failed to attend were fined ¥70,000.

◎ Meetings are held at night about four times a week, typically beginning around 9:00 p.m. They last about two hours, sometimes continuing until after midnight.

◎ Whenever criticism of the management association appears on social media or elsewhere online, an effort is launched to identify the poster, and countermeasures are discussed as agenda items at the general meeting.

◎ Anyone who opposes the management association’s policies may be charged settlement fees, penalty fees, or other monetary assessments.

A unit that should have sold for ¥20 Million can’t find a buyer even at ¥5 Million

“The door covered with notices was mine. About two months after I refused to pay the cooperation fee and the administrative management fee, around 130 notices were posted on my door over multiple occasions. Several other residents were also targeted in the same way.

“One time, a member of the management association chased me through the building to my apartment while shouting, ‘Pay your maintenance fees!’ It was genuinely frightening. On another occasion, a notice was posted in the entrance ordering me, ‘People who haven’t paid their maintenance fees are not allowed to use the elevator,'” said Mr. Hanada.

Another male member of the Volunteer Association voiced his frustration.

“Like Mr. Hanada, we refused to pay what we considered illegitimate monthly charges—just under ¥40,000—including temporary maintenance fees and cooperation fees. Yet over a period of less than two years, we were billed ¥4 million under the heading carried-over unpaid balance. We were never given a breakdown explaining how the amount was calculated.”

After the building switched to self-management, 12 unit owners moved out, having grown disillusioned with the way it was being run. One former owner said she considered renting out her unit but claimed that the condominium’s rules prohibited leasing.

“I couldn’t rent it out, and I didn’t want anything more to do with them, so I tried to sell it at a bargain price. But every real estate agency turned me down, and I couldn’t find a buyer at all.”

In April 2024, lawsuits began flying between the management association and unit owners over issues including unpaid maintenance fees and alleged defamation through the posted notices.

Last year, the Volunteer Association was formed and filed a class-action lawsuit seeking confirmation that the condominium’s ban on rentals is invalid.

Attorney Orita, mentioned earlier, said:

“In addition to the rental prohibition—which has caused significant financial harm—we believe there are multiple problems with the way Building A is managed, including the methods used to collect temporary maintenance fees.”

According to residents, the series of disputes has also severely affected the property’s market value.

“Considering the building’s age and floor plans, similar condominiums in the neighborhood sell for around ¥20 million. But units in this building won’t sell even after being reduced to the ¥5 million range. Some owners have been forced to let theirs go for less than ¥3 million,” said a unit owner in Building A who also works in the real estate industry.

Are Hanada and the other residents’ claims—that opaque maintenance fees are being charged, rentals are prohibited, and so many meetings are held that they interfere with daily life—actually true? And how does the management association view the fact that it is currently involved in more than ten lawsuits?

“FRIDAY” sent a written questionnaire to B, the administrator of Building A’s management association, but received no response by the deadline. A text message sent to B’s mobile phone also went unanswered, and when a phone call was placed, it was immediately disconnected.

With more than ten legal disputes involving its own residents and the property’s value having plummeted, one cannot help but wonder whether this is truly the form of self-management the association set out to achieve.