Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tyroleanhat]

I am hoping to find an answer here about a deposit problem I am having, which won't let me sleep at night.
My former landlord says he cannot give my deposit (9mil) back right now, because after I left he couldnt find a replacement. (So he is saying that he is broke, until a new tenant comes and pays him a new deposit)
Does this happen in Korea?
What are my rights here, if worse comes to worse? I heard that I am safe, because if the landlord goes bankrupt, the government will give me the deposit back. Can someone shed some light on that?

[optik404]

Yes it happens. It's common for landlords to pay back your deposit with the new tenant's deposit.

It's illegal for him to not pay you back when the contract is up. If he ends up never paying you back you'll have to sue and it's a big ordeal.

What I would do is go or call the Global Center and have them call the landlord for you. If you can speak Korean, call him and be very firm about needing your deposit back ASAP. Shout if you have to.

[Feebie]

I know you can register at city hall to protect your deposit in this kind of circumstance, not sure of anything is offered automatically. You can also buy insurance against this problem. Neither much use now but worth remembering in the future.

[schwa]

[optik404]

[tyroleanhat]

[Jake_Kim]

In a typical lease, most landlords avoid agreeing to leasehold registration with the court to begin with, which is elective not mandatory, for a variety of reasons.

What is usually done instead by the lessee/tenant as an alternative is that he takes the original lease document to his new local administration office (주민센터/동사무소) and get it stamped for the acknowledgement by the local authority of your moving into this particular property. The Korean term is '확정일자', which comes into effect THE NEXT DAY. In doing so, the deposit, even if the fund gets commingled with the landlord's own assets, retains seniority claim against uncollateralized, junior claims.

But if you have no idea what that is, it is more likely than not that you didn't obtain this 'stamp' when you first moved in. If so, there's another legal tool called '임차권등기명령' which is basically a court order to register the leasehold ex post facto, provided that a) the lease has been expired or terminated, and b) leasehold deposit has not been fully returned, regardless of partial return.

Again, this latter court order is still about setting seniority among different claims on the lessor's assets, not about starting seizing his assets and recovering hard cash. For the recovery part, unless the landlord coughs up your money, it needs to go through the whole foreclosure process.

It is uncertain what level of lies your ex-landlord is telling, it could be in fact that he is running some form of house of cards where he really doesn't have enough cash reserve or cash flow to pull a lump sum. Nevertheless, that's his problem, and you might wanna play hardball with your landlord including a threat of real litigation by proxy if necessary. Mind the second tool mentioned above, and see what happens.

[talentedcrayon]

Hi OP,

I have pretty extensive experience collecting on very large debts.

Try to see if your landlord is able to pay you anything right now. Ask him for 50%. If he says no, see if he is willing to give you an amount less than that. Try to set something up where he pays you back over time (monthly). It's better that he's giving you something than nothing.

Work with him. Don't get upset. Listen to what he has to say, act understanding. Don't be combative, it doesn't help. Document your conversations and call times.

If he won't give you anything, even a few hundred thousand won and a written agreement to give you more monthly until he gets a renter and can pay you back in full, this signifies to me that he is acting in bad faith. He likely has no intention of paying you willingly.

At this point I would recommend taking other action. I am not an expert on what avenues you have available to you in Korea.

Unfortunately, it seems like in Korea protecting yourself is something you do before you give your landlord the deposit, not after. Good luck anyway though.

[JMO]

[big_fella1]

The nuclear option is to threaten to report your landlord to the tax office.

Thanks to the Korean government's xenophobia non-Koreans don't get a tax deduction for rent, so some landlords don't declare the rent that non-Koreans pay to the tax office.

When my landlord was reluctant to give me my deposit back, a threat to go to the tax office got me the money within 15 minutes. Good luck!

[Jake_Kim]

[Weigookin74]