Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hootsmon]

Hey, just a quick question to those people who rent their own apartments. I've done all the leg work - paid my deposit, got the key, all ready to move in. There's just one thing I'm unsure about.

I heard that you can register with your local government office (or something) and it means the government insures your deposit in case your landlord does a runner or goes bankrupt. Seemingly it's a very simple process and doesn't cost anything. It's available for everyone who puts down key money and it covers up to 16 million, I think.

So, to anyone who has done it, could you please tell me what this thing is called in Korean and where I have to go to do it? It's not mandatory, and there's nothing to suggest the landlord will be dodgy (seems very nice so far) but this is Korea and I'd prefer to have my money covered.

Oh, and I might need to know this - if you need to get your gas switched on, is there a local provider or just one big Korean company I need to call?

Thanks!

[CheeseSandwich]

I'd love to know an answer this this as I just did the exact same thing.

Sounds too good to be true.

[schwa]

I did exactly this just last week but I would have had a tough time of it without my real estate agent helping. She took me first to the local dong office where Koreans register their deposits but they said as a foreigner I had to register at a different office -- some obscure little govt outpost across town. It took my agent several phone calls to determine where this was.

It was called ... sorry, I didnt make note of the department name. Thats not very helpful, other than to suggest you too could start by asking at your dong office.

Your information about the procedure is correct. Its quick & straightforward & a sensible precaution to insure your money. Not free however -- set me back a whopping 600 won.

[CheeseSandwich]

[schwa]

Heres a little more info.

Seems as a foreigner I had to register with a provincial office (which has local branches) rather than a municipal one. I dont know how Seoul would work that.

The name of the department I dealt with was [provincial capital] Ji-bang-beob-yun. Sorry no hangeul but easy to unromanize.

You just need to show your signed lease & your ARC.

[Hootsmon]

[moosehead]

hey this is news to me - and I used a real estate agent - I asked about interest on the key money and she said no one pays interest on key money - which I think is BS but all the same mine wasn't that much -

I'll look into this registering bit - thanks OP for the post!

jees is there ANYTHING they don't try and screw foreigners on????

[Hootsmon]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[moosehead]

[Spongebob Squarepants]

My wife and I did this for our place a year back. In Seoul you are covered up to 20 million.
It's done at the Dong office, and it's called a 확정일자
You need to show ID and your rental contract.

[M-su]

Each "Dong" has an office that could take care of this in a matter of seconds. They'll stamp it, it costs about 500 won. And yeah, bring I.D.

Hope your landlord is a decent person. My former landlord stole from me and lied and ripped me off....

DON"T pay rent by cash. If you do have him/her sign for it. Use online banking if you can cuz all the receipts will be stored through your bank. I couldn't prove that I had paid full rent (of course I had) he used it against me and milked me for another month's rent.

Hydro and maintenance are sometimes shared by all the tenants living in the building. Sometimes my landlord would just scribble down a random number on a piece of scrap paper, an outrageous number btw. Don't pay until you see the actual bill!

Again, don't pay by cash and expect that everything will be fine the day your contract is up. They'll play nice and take a huge bite out of your deposit anyway they can!

[moosehead]

thanks for the heads up - yeah, I kinda expected what you say - they did milk me for an extra 10,000 flat fee for the water bill - I've paid water bills before and they were never that high - but I haven't lived in HBC before either - at the time I was just like, whatever, go for it..

I'm definitely registering at the dong office -

[Hootsmon]

[Hootsmon]

Okay, to answer my own question for those others interested...

As said above, what you need to ask for is "확정일자"

You can seemingly get this done at your local dong office, the name of which has recently changed to 시민센터 - Citizen's Centre. You can find your local one on naver if you put in your local dong and the Citizen Centre bit in Korean - a wee map pops up, just find the way from the nearest subway station.

Take your apartment lease and ARC and you should be set. I'll find out for sure in a couple of weeks when I do it myself.

Thanks to everyone who replied...it was a big help. Hope this also benefits some other people - get that key money covered! One less thing to worry about, eh?