Korean Job Discussion Forums

[machoman]

without your permission? when i first moved in, the landlord let me see inside one of the tenants apartment without her being there.

just now, they rang my doorbell and knocked on the door. i opened up, and the landlord said sorry and said something in korean. there was a couple behind her. im guessing she wanted to show them what the average apartment looks like.

i think it's effed up to just go into my apartment like that. i have vibrators and lube and crap laying around everywhere. thank god my blowup doll was deflated.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I changed the locks after moving in.

[chellovek]

No. They'd be in for a surprise if they did

[TeacherinDeajeon]

Yes. multiple times. The owner (halmoni) lived( sort of) in the the villa that i currently am in. She owns the huge building. She moved back to the villa on the first floor. Anyways, she left a few boxes and nik naks in a hallway, which was no big deal. Over the next month she would enter my apartment to "pick-up" one item. When I was home and not home. I also have come home to find her exiting my apartment. Of course, I have spoken to her about this, and my school, and the education office. First diplomatically, then more forcefully, but still polite. Finally, after 9 months it has stopped, as far as I know.

Yes, I changed the locks. No, it didn't stop her.

[Hamlet]

The owner of my place never came in (as far as I know), but I had a pretty big apartment, and every so often I would come home to find an unfamiliar person sitting on my couch.

When I would ask who they were, they would explain that they were a friend/associate of the school owner, and he said they could live with me for a while!

[horton1]

They have never come in, but I changed the lock to a keypad and no one at my school knows the code. Plus my dog would go crazy barking, so I really doubt anyone would try to come in even if they did know the code.

[imoscardotcom]

[Riker]

[Globutron]

Nah. I lost my keys and left the door unlocked for a few days recently, knowing nobody would bother coming in.
Just feels that safe to me here. Found the keys, mind.

[joeleitz]

That is actually against the Tenants Act. They need to give you atleast a 24 hour notice before coming in. The previous tenant might have given her permission for them to show the place while she wasn't there but the fact that they are showing up at your door now without warning isn't a good sign. Just like it is in their right to do a background check on you, you also have various rights protecting yourself and property. I would, at the very least, have a conversation with them and/or file an official complaint.

[oldfatfarang]

I've never had a landlord come into my room (that I know of). However, I once had a POE district supervisor tell me that the Korean teachers at my school would be coming around to my room for 'English conversation'.

Yeah, right! To stop this nonsense I literally had to write a letter to my PS school - and all the Korean teachers, explaining western notions of 'home' and 'privacy'. Bloody cheek. He obviously thought that because they were paying for the accommodation - that they would be able to use my room (and free time) for free English lessons. Give these people an inch and they'll take a mile (our accommodations aren't free - they're part of our worked-for salary and benefits package). We earn our accommodation and we get to say who comes into our living quarters).

Good luck.

[shabu_shabu]

[Morticae]

My landlord comes in all the time, and it annoys me. Sometimes she takes things that came furnished, sometimes she puts new things in, sometimes both.

Just yesterday I came home and saw a giant comforter folded up on the floor. It smelled funny, I don't want it. I shoved it in the closet.

Another time I came home and she had changed my bedding, even took the pillow and replaced it with an inferior hard one.

A chair went missing once, too.

But she has also put things in there. Like a rug... which I didn't like, so I folded it up and use it as a mat for my little computer table. And the bookshelf, which I use to put my folded laundry on. She has left me dinner once or twice.

I'd rather she didn't come in at all, it drives me crazy.

[Radius]

Man do I hate this practice in Korea! It's such a blatant violation of privacy. I was put into a temporary place while my apartment was finished being built. I never knew landlords can come in your place UNANNOUNCED.

So one day, I hear a knock at the door and I open it. Here is standing some adjumma with a family of 4. I haven't cleaned since the first day I moved in maybe 2 weeks ago. How freakin embarrassing! I had a couple pizza boxes laying around some 40 OZ'ers of Cass Red layin out on the table, some nachos and cheese next to it---hell, it could have been a bachelor's pad on a Budweiser commercial. I just got a new kitten so the kitten was flying around and scaring the crap out of the kids (and the mother--you'd swear a lion got loose in the room by the way they were reacting to it). The place smelled pretty bad I remember because the kitten just took a dump maybe 5 minutes before they came in (and the place did have a musty tinge to it as I recall upon moving in, to make matters worse). I was just humiliated.
LOL it was pretty funny, though, as they called my director and asked him to tell me to keep the place presentable.
Hey, I was in between places and it was hectic at the time, so I let the place go for a week or two---who hasn't?!

....Honest to God this is a true story. That should teach 'em to bring prospective buyers to MY house announced.

[Young FRANKenstein]