Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gollum]

I've got this beautiful new offictell apartment in Bundang. Brand new. Spankin' brand new. Had to pull the cardboard off of the floors.

Sounds good, right? So I get my bill for my utilities and stuff for last month. It was over 180,000 won!!!!!!! And only 40,000 of that was for heat last month! The rest is for every other little charge under the sun. I had paid a 70,000 won bill already for the first few weeks I lived here (last month) so this bill is definately a full month regular bill.

I find out I'm paying a split average with everyone else here on the floor. Even though I pretty much had the heat off for 3 weeks out of the month, I got nailed.

My place is about 9 pyong of living space -- if that. But I'm charged for 16 pyong, because they count the elevator, parking space (I don't have a car anyway) and other areas gosh knows where.

I'm scared to see what a bad month will cost!

I pay a total of like 60,000 won just for "cleaning expenses" of the hallways and stuff. Hell, I told them I'm going to just start throwing my garbage in the hallway, seeing that they are charging me that much to clean it!

I guess this is good advice for you to check out if your school moves you into a new place. My fault -- I should have known better. This is Korea. They screw you any way they can for money.

[just because]

Your apartment doesn't sound very nice

[Mr. Pink]

9 pyung is small.

180k? Cheaper for you to move out and get your own pad.

My apt bil is 185k this month, 24pyung apt. I have no idea wtf it is so expensive, but betting it is my wife having the heating maxed out all the time.

[Gollum]

[dutchman]

Officetels are notorious for high monthly maintenance fees. It's not just yours.

[Gollum]

I got an itemized list of my bill in English:

General Management fee: 58,463
Cleaning Hall/Elevator: 18,484
Sterlize building (So Dok Bee): 557
Food Garbage?: 1,000
Building repair: 2,424
Fire Insurance? (Hwa Jae Bo Hom Ryu): 633
Electric Usage: 10,479
Basic Electric Charge: 4,083
Apt Fee? (Kong-dong-Yu-Gum) 7,747
Elevator Electric fee: 705
Sewage? (So-do-Sae-Dae) 2,966
Water Tax: 183
Heating Floor: 49,713
Basic Heat Charge: 1,636
Hall/Stairs heat: 5,389
Hot water?(Un Su Sae Dae) 19,034

Total: 183,490

I'm a little miffed about the ondol charge. I have had my heating off for the past 3 weeks. Also, it's that crazy management fee that seems to drive stuff so darned high. I talked to other people who have newer offictells, and theirs is similar.

After I add it all up, since it's such an all-inclusive bill, maybe I don't have much to complain about. I get free internet for 2 years here, so once I subtract what that woud be from the total, it helps me swallow the "management fee".

[dutchman]

How many apartments are in the building?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Sounds like you need to head back to Itewon Station. At least there, you can live rent and bill free.

[VanIslander]

There are a few people around here with horrible apartments who'd trade you in a minute, I'd suspect, for the about $200 "rent" you pay.

I have a very nice relatively new apartment and I pay about 70,000 W a month for utilities, cable and the like.

The reason my apartment is TOO nice is it was the deciding factor in my deciding to spend another year here on the island: I just couldn't give up an ideal apartment, in what WAS an ideal location - unfortunately, massive construction over the last six months has now obstructed my view of the bay on one side, the mountains on the other side, and I have a tall motel gaping down on my 5th floor rooftop apartment (if I'd only known...).

[aussie col]

Wow, you're getting screwed. But looks like there's nothing that can be done.

I lived in a nice apartment building for 6 months or so. One of the big 18 floor ones with a couple of guards standing around doing nothing. When the first bill came we had it translated into English and couldn't believe the charges. There were all the normal elevator cleaning ect�� but also things like TV fee = 3000 Won. That was for the normal TV aerial, not cable. We would even get charged a few thousand Won for heating in summer when the heating hadn��t been turned on.

[eamo]

I'm curious. Where is this building?

Bundang has some fancy apartment buildings with their own gym, supermarket etc. They are insanely expensive.

I would be surprised if a hagwon would put a teacher in one of those.

[spliff]

I love my apartment...2 BR, LR, Kit and laundry. Best of all, it overlooks the bedroom and bathroom of this real sexy Korean babe (that' right, spliff's not into the FWC's) and that keeps me busy many a night! Although my arm does hurt at times.

[Toby]

Service charge is quite common. I found it when I was looking for a place recently. They tell you the cost of the house, which is in your budget and then they whack on another 50k for cleaning the 6 steps up to your house and for sorting out the re-cycling.

My place has it included in the overall price, but that is not common.

Chin up. If you are paying for it, you should make a mess on someone else's floor and start urinating in doorways! You'll be getting your moneys' worth then.

[aussie col]

Since you're paying such a large management fee you shoud be contacting management at least every week and getting them to come to the apartment and look at something. Just make something up to get them out there and work for their money.

[Toby]