If you are thinking about selling your restaurant as an inuki (furnished) property, read this before submitting your notice of termination.

The moment you decide to close your shop, what are you about to do?

Business isn't going well.
You've reached your physical limit.
You want to pursue a different path.
Whatever the reason, the moment you decide to "close the shop," there is something many business owners try to do first.

That is submitting a notice of termination to the landlord or management company.

I understand the feeling.
It feels natural to think that the first step to ending a contract is to notify them.
However, submitting that notice at that specific timing can lead to losses in the millions of yen.
That is what I am going to talk about today.

Why submitting a notice of termination first leads to a "checkmate."

First, let's establish a premise.

In many cases, wanting to sell your shop means you want to "recover the transfer fee for fixtures and furnishings."
A fixture transfer is a transaction where the next tenant buys the tangible assets remaining in the shop, such as kitchen equipment, interior fittings, facilities, and furniture.
By having the next tenant take over the property as an inuki (furnished) property, you can recover cash while keeping exit costs down.
If it goes well, you could receive a transfer fee ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of yen.

The problem is that the major prerequisite for this fixture transfer to be successful is that the property must be in its "pre-vacated state."

If you submit the notice of termination first, the move-out date becomes fixed.
If it takes time to find a buyer and the next tenant isn't decided by the move-out date, it's game over at that point. No fixture transfer fee is generated for an empty, vacated property.
The money you could have recovered becomes zero, and in some cases, you end up bearing the cost of construction to return the property to its skeleton state.
This is what it means to be in a "checkmate" situation.

The logic behind why a fixture transfer fee is generated.

It is important to understand why a fixture transfer fee is generated in the first place.

When opening a new restaurant, it is not uncommon for it to cost anywhere from several million to over ten million yen to acquire kitchen equipment, interior fittings, air conditioning, and exhaust systems from scratch, depending on the business type and scale.

With an inuki property, you can move in with those things already in place.
For the next tenant, there is the benefit of significantly reducing initial costs.
The fixture transfer fee is paid to the previous tenant as "compensation for that benefit."

In other words, the fixture transfer fee is money generated by the fact that "usable equipment and interior fittings are there."
That fact does not exist in a property that has been vacated and emptied. Therefore, it has no value.

The "golden timing" for submitting a notice of termination.

So, when should you submit the notice of termination?

The answer is simple.
It is better to submit it at the same time as the application from the next prospective tenant, or at the timing when the fixture transfer deal is finalized.

The specific flow is as follows.
First, convey your intention to sell the shop to a reliable intermediary and start looking for a buyer.
When a prospective buyer appears, proceed with negotiations on the conditions of the fixture transfer. Once the amount and handover conditions are agreed upon, convey your intention to terminate to the landlord or management company and fix the move-out date.

Just by following this order, you can avoid the worst-case scenario of looking for a buyer while being chased by a move-out deadline.
A notice of termination is a document that creates a "deadline."
Before setting a deadline, make sure you are prepared to recover what you can.

Contact the landlord or management company only after deciding on the plan.

In proceeding with an inuki transfer, there are cases where the consent of the landlord or management company is required.
However, caution is needed here.

If you tell them "I want to sell it as an inuki" first without any preparation, there is a risk that a transfer that could have been possible will become impossible.

Depending on the property, there are contracts that prohibit fixture transfers.
Depending on the landlord, their attitude may change based on how you approach them.
If you show your hand first, the room for negotiation narrows.

That is why it is important to consult with an intermediary first and decide on a plan before contacting the landlord or management company.
If you don't move after organizing the order of negotiations, how to convey things, and the timing—things that could have been sold will become unsellable. Do not get the order of operations wrong.

To avoid losses, consult a professional before making any moves.

The decision to close a shop is often made in a state of mental and physical exhaustion.
It is natural to want to finish it quickly and get the troublesome procedures over with.

However, that impatience leads to the action of "submitting the notice of termination first," which causes the money you could have recovered to disappear.

Consult an expert once before you move.
The money you have left will be completely different depending on whether you move after grasping the market price for fixture transfers, how to proceed with negotiations, and how to convey things to the landlord, versus moving without knowing anything.

Closing a shop is not the end.
It is a transition to the next stage.
I want you to prepare carefully and without haste to proceed with that transition under the most favorable conditions possible.