Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Triban]

Moved in to a new officetel at Suwon Station and for the past 2 months my bill has been over 150k. This is fairly ridiculous. Any hints as to why? And no, I'm not blasting my A/C and my electric was only around 50-60k

[pkang0202]

Sounds normal for OfficeTel.

Move into a oneroom Villa. Your bills will go down significantly.

[oldfatfarang]

Yeah, you're being ripped.


I live in a one room shoe box and my electricity for summer (aircon use) was 20,000 won and my gas in about 7,000 won (I cook 7 days a week).

When I lived in a Seoul office tel they charged 100,000 won a month (even when I was absent for 6 weeks). You're probably paying for some old security guy to sleep day and night.

[misher]

Triban,

That is absolutely normal for an officetel. My officetel usually runs at about 170,000 and apparently in the winter it will double because of the heating in the building. Be prepared.

Look at your bill and it will give you a breakdown of all the costs. like the above poster, just for the kyeongbi ajossi I am paying 85,000 alone.

[optik404]

Probably should have found out what your Building fee was before you moved in.

Usually they charge per pyung IIRC. So for a 19pyung room, some places might charge 6,000WON and others 10,000WON per pyung

[PigeonFart]

That is normal, especially since your officetel is near a station (prime locations always cost more).

[pkang0202]

When I lived in an officetel, my water bill alone was like 40,000w.

Maintence Fee was like 50,000w
Electricity 60,000w
Gas 40,000w
Water 40,000w

I was paying like 150,000-200,000w a month in utils. When I moved into a one room villa that was bigger than the officetel, my monthly bills dropped to like 60,000-80,000w a month.

[abigolblackman]

I assume you have neighbors.

In my first year, I got a fairly high bill for water and electricity (heating was apart of the electricity) as well as the [ridiculously high] management fee (for keeping the building clean, you know, a building that didn't have a lobby/public bathroom/or cleaning lady so...).

From December --> March I froze my @$$ off because in November I got such a high bill, I decided that I would not use any heat all Winter. [I'm from SoCal, we don't take kindly to "cold"] When I kept getting high bills come March, I took this up with my school, and they called my building manager. The building manager claimed that I used to much heat, and that was the reason I had a high bill. When I convinced my school that I hadn't used heating in almost 4 months, they asked the building manager again, who finally admitted the billing process as such:

On each floor there are 4 apartments. There is not a meter for each individual apartment (even though the building was new), so she lumps each floor together and divides the cost among the 4 apartments. On top of that, I had the "bigger" apartment, so she charged me more. So even though I wasn't using any heat, my neighbors had the heat on full blast all day long all Winter long, so I was essentially paying their heating bill.

This may be something you are experience, so you better check.

What's funny is (by funny I mean efffed up), the other apartment tenants knew I was from SoCal, so they always complained to her and blamed me for using too much heat because I wasn't used to "Korean Winters", trying to shift the blame to me.

[sojusucks]

OP, how long have you lived there? Is the amount owed different than other months? If it is bring it to the attention of someone in your building, or school, and ask why. I know people who have had problems with water leaks or other things in their apartments. Just check it out and question it. Don't get angry and don't accuse anyone of cheating you. Just ask for an explanation. Put them on the spot because this is about money. But if that's not enough and something sounds fishy, stand up for yourself.

[alwaysbeclosing100]

why not to live in an officetel.......

[littlelisa]

The last couple of months at this officetel where I lived, they suddently started charging me over 100,000 for gas instead of before when it never went higher than 12,000.

I went to the building office and said the price went up a lot, and after assuring her I did not use gas much (ondol had not even been on once that month), and showing her the bills, the lady told me there was a mistake, and actually got 80,000 deposited back into my account (I had only paid one of the two months, so basically I only got charged 10,000 per month for those two last months).

She did this even though she knew I was leaving the building.

[vDroop]

Just show your bill to a Korean and ask what the fees are for?

[WadRUG'naDoo]

Anything other than having to pay your utilities and rent is a total rip off.

[3DR]

This happened to me last year when I stayed in an officetel in Suwon as well.

The bill was fine over the summer, but as it got colder, the bills progressively got higher. I was hovering around 100,000 in September. By December it was 200,000, then by the time I left in April, my last bill was over 300,000.

I wasn't using the heat full blast and in fact I put plastic over the windows to keep the cold draft out from the huge window I had. I also went on vacation for two weeks and the bill was still high.

[toonchoon]

150,000 Won bill was the last one. They have been as much as 180,000/month over the 18 months i've lived in an officetel. Doesn't include gas, which will average out to about 30,000/month (very cheap in summer / expensive in winter).

I don't mind paying the fees to live in a baller place. I've lived in shoeboxes and old villa rooms, and felt like my quality of life decreased while there.