※Our business is aimed at corporate and individual customers residing in Japan, so we cannot respond to inquiries from outside Japan.

Even in Tokyo, the redevelopment of major areas in the city center and sub-center areas is progressing, and complex commercial facilities, intelligent buildings, and residential condominiums are being gorgeously developed. In residential areas of Tokyo’s 23 wards and surrounding cities, demand for detached houses and condominiums is high, and land prices continue to soar.
At the same time, however, the problem of vacant houses is increasing, regardless of whether they are detached houses or condominiums, due to factors such as the declining birthrate and aging population.

In November 2014, a Diet member’s bill, “Law on Special Measures Concerning Promotion of Empty House Measures” (hereinafter referred to as “Empty House Measures Law”) was enacted.
The reason why the vacant house countermeasures law was submitted by Diet members, not the cabinet, is that many local governments (municipalities) throughout the country had enacted vacant house countermeasures ordinances before the enactment of the vacant house countermeasures law.

The Vacant House Countermeasures Act defines “vacant houses” as “buildings that have not been used for more than one year” and “specified vacant houses” as “extremely dangerous buildings”.
According to the Empty House Countermeasures Act, if there is a “significant risk of danger”, it is designated as a “specific vacant house”.
If the owner of a “specific vacant house” is identified, the administrative agency can provide “advice/guidance, recommendation, order, execution by proxy1” on behalf of the owner. In addition, if the owner is unknown and there is a high possibility that the house will become a “specified vacant house”, it is possible to carry out “execution on behalf of the owner by summary procedure2”.

*1 An administrative act in which a government agency removes a specified vacant house and forcibly collects fees from the owner.
*2 An administrative act in which an administrative agency promptly removes a specific vacant house and after the owner is identified, the owner forcibly collects the fee.

The above is an overview of the Empty House Countermeasures Law.

I think Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist can solve the vacant house problem as follows.
I think the focus should be on deterring potential vacant homes that could become vacant in the future by solving the problem of vacant homes already and providing preventative advice to clients.

I am a vacant house counselor after completing the training course of the Tokyo Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist Association Special Committee for Vacant Houses (hereinafter referred to as the “Special Committee”).
If you apply for consultation on an unoccupied house, we will do our best to respond.

There are very few cases where Certified Administrative Procedures Legal Specialist are consulted from the beginning about the problem of vacant houses.

Then, what kind of cases are very common? It is mainly a case where we give advice as legal affairs to prevent vacant houses from consultations on real estate (detached houses, condominiums, etc.) related to inheritance.

Specifically, there are cases where real estate is included in the property inventory of the will or inheritance division agreement, and the possibility of the house becoming vacant in the future is very high depending on the client’s own circumstances and the client’s family structure.

As outlined in typical cases (1) to (6) below.

(1) Households consisting of only elderly couples (no children) living in their current real estate

(2) Households with single elderly people who live in the real estate of their current residence and have brothers and sisters living together

(3) Households of single elderly people who live in the real estate of their current residence (property acquired through property division after divorce)

(4) Elderly single-person households who plan to move from their current real estate property and live with their children

(5) Households of elderly couples who plan to move into a facility for the elderly without selling their current real estate

(6) Single households who do not sell their current real estate and move to a rural area (U-turn within Okinawa Prefecture)

We work in cooperation with law firms and judicial scrivener firms, so if the results of an inheritance property investigation indicate a high level of conflict or a case related to registration, we will introduce you to a lawyer or judicial scrivener as a one-stop service, so please feel free to contact us.

※Our business is aimed at corporate and individual customers residing in Japan, so we cannot respond to inquiries from outside Japan.

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