Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Clockout]

I pay W100,000 - W125,000 per month for utilities

This is obscene and is seriously cutting into my bottom line

This so called "Free housing" isn't all it's cracked up to be

I am curious to see how high it will be for September when I didn't run any air con at all.

Is water incredibly expensive here? I've deduced that ~W25,000 of my bill is electricity (definitely my most used utility.)

My "building maintenance fees" must account for at least 50% of this bill.

[OBwannabe]

Straight out of college and never had to pay your own bills before I presume? Maybe your parents or students loans took care of that before and you didn't have to pay out of your own paycheque?

100-125/mth really isn't anything to get worked up about. Maybe run a fan instead of aircon more next summer. Turn your lights off when not in a room. I alot 200/mth for bills within my budget, although it rarely comes to that much.

Power bills alone can be half of, what you are paying in utilities, back home. Here you can easily pay less than 10,000/mth for electricity.

[redaxe]

Here's mine from August, I happened to have it on my desk:

general management fee: 33,920
cleaning fee (for the building, not my apartment): 20,690
repair fee: 3,650
security fee (for the guards who stand around doing nothing): 23,140
community (for the gym and some sort of ajumma meetings i guess): 12,330
elevator fee: 2,200
장기수선충당금 (don't know what that means): 2,970
other general management fee: 170
garbage fee: 1,500
sterilization fee: 600
insurance fee: 1,560
cable TV: 2,500
전력기금: 1,930
another repair fee: 640
management team operation fee: 740
electricity fee (my usage at 349.75kwh): 33,240
collective electricity fee: 18,900
water (my usage at 6.6 m3): 15,200
collective water fee: 5,600
collective gas fee: 2,130
another cleaning fee: 120
VAT: 15,020
some other kind of tax: 2,740
other items: 30,790

GRAND TOTAL: 198,750

So basically only 33,240 for electricity + 15,200 for water was my actual utility cost. Then my gas was a separate bill, that was another 7,000 won or so. Everything else is supposedly the cost of running the building where I live, and is a fixed cost that I must pay every month even if I don't use any of it.

Agreed, it's obscene. I can only guess that the staff who run my apartment building go out for samgyupsal and noraebang all the time and charge it to the "company account," aka the tenants.

[bassexpander]

You may not know it, but officetels have considerably higher utility rates than most homes. My rates from our 33+ pyung 3br/2ba apartment are equal to those of my old efficiency officetel at the Royal Palace in Bundang.

[deizio]

If you haven't lived through a winter here then then the jan / feb / mar gas bills might really get your attention. If you live in a decent building with guards, elevators etc then everything seems in order, i paid more than that in an officetel.

[Clockout]

I just think that the school should pay for anything that isn't my personal usage. It is just misleading when the contract says "free housing" but I am actually paying around W80,000 in building fees regardless of my personal utility usage in a given month.

Where is the line drawn? Where exactly does the rent and/or key money go?

Not trying to be whiner here. Am I being petty?

[blackjack]

[bassexpander]

Stupidly high maintenance fees for virtually nothing... one of those fun little things about living here, I guess.

When I lived in the Royal Palace (the first year it opened -- had to pull cardboard off of my floors) I was charged well over 200,000 on our first bill. I'd hardly used any electricity, either. It was insane, because it was fall. Turns out only 3 officetells were occupied on my floor at the time, and they split all floor/elevator utilities 3 ways! I was not a happy camper!

That week, some ajumma came knocking on my door asking me to sign a complaint form. They negotiated down the fees. There were some insane charges snuck in that were obvious padding for someone making a few extra bucks off of the occupants. For example, there was a water cooler by the front window, and they charged the apartment complex 1 million won per month to have it there... a freakin' water cooler that's free with four 5,000 won bottles per month! Also, they paid a gardener 2 million won per month to water some flowers on 5th floor. Yeah, I bet he/she didn't even see that much money!

[Clockout]

[Gnawbert]

My girlfriend and I spend on average about 200,000 a month on our combined bill for our little split level loft officetel in Yatap, Bundang-gu. Sometimes more if we leave the A/C on all summer, but even if we don't it still doesn't fluctuate much.

Last year we shared an officetel meant for one in Ori and our bills still edged out at over 100,000 a month.

[blackjack]

[Rusty Shackleford]

You're quibbling over 20,000 won a week. Get a life. If you go to your school with this, they're going to think you are a retard.

[cherrycoke]

I only pay 20000 to 24000 won for electric and gas. I unplug my refrigerator though. I'm sure you sophisticated folk on Dave's have better ways to deal with issues like this so I will politely bow out.

[PeteJB]

Damn, that's nasty BassExpander.

Hm, I pay about 10,000 a month for gas (25k in winter) and 10k for electric all year round. That's with a computer on all day, and aircon about 1/3rd of the time during the hot months. Everything else is free (included in rent)

[greasypeanut]

i guess im lucky in that my rent covers some utilities also. bcuz ive never recieved ne bills that even get close to 100k. i cant remember exactly which bill is what, but i get 3 bills; gas, electric, and internet/tv. they are each all around 14-24k