Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pjmancktelow]

ok, so i have a situation in my apartment that i'd like some advice on. its more the legal side that i'd like advice on please.

i am 8 months into a year contract. when i signed up, the agent told me an area adjacent to the property was included in my apartment and not shared. the washing machine is in this area and attached to my gas and electric. so i pay the bill on this. for imagination purposes its kinda an L shaped area next to the apartment which is semi outside. it has a door on it (no lock) but is fully covered. there is a gate though which stops anybody just walking in. its only accessible from one of the 2 apartments in the compound or whatever the word would be,

one other apartment shares this area and the guy in there is cool and i have no beef with him. my real issue is that he's just moved in and has been told by the landlord that its a shared area. contrary to what ive been told. so one of us is being lied to here (yeah, i know where we are).

no the landlord has decided to start storing his stuff in the 'shared' area. he did this at 8am saturday morning too and there is a window onto my bedroom from this area. one of the items is 10liters of petrol/gasoline. the area gets very very hot in summer. which has pleased me no end. i didnt come out of the house, as i may of said things i would of later regretted.

so basically, my intention now because of this is to go and see the agent as they are the ones who initially told me it was my area exclusively. and the landlord has told the new tenant next door its shared. so thats why i'm bypassing the landlord. also he is a rather shady individual and not very trustworthy.

so basically, i intend to try and get out of this contract about 2-3 months early. i want to know what kind of penalty i'd face. back home (i know this is not back home) this kind of thing would (possibly) make a breach of contract serious enough to allow me cease the contract. but like i said, this is not back home.

also, when i moved in, the wallpaper and flooring was not changed. i believe this is something they have to do. but cannot find anything to ascertain that.

so if anybody can point me to a good solution or korean property law in english that would be awesome.

i'll add one thing, the guy although korean, has a US passport and works on the base. his son is basically an american and this is itaewon, so language barriers here do not exist.

cheers in advance

[pjmancktelow]

nobody?

[joesp]

the problem is that it's all verbal agreements, so you will have to argue your way through it, as far as the living area goes.

The penalty for leaving early is usually, well, unlike commercial contracts, you have to pay the monthly for the rest of the contract, even if they rent it out. IIRC. So, it's not like a commercial space, where if you leave the contract early you only have to pay until the new tenant moves in.

Thirdly, I had the wallpaper replaced in one place. You have to ask for those things when you move in, or, before you move in, after you look at the place, as part of the verbal side of the contract. So, hindsight doesn't really matter.

That's just my knowledge of these facts.

[pjmancktelow]

cheers, i'm going to see him tonight about it. its been 10 days now, thats plenty of time if it was a temporary thing. cheers for the advice though