Korean Job Discussion Forums

[doc_ido]

I got my utility bill the other week, and while overall it's not too bad, I was a little surprised at the "management fees" section.

The whole thing is broken down into various categories (what I use, communal lighting, elevator maintenance etc.), but out of a W180,000 bill W110,000 is "management expenses" (관리비). I guess this might pay for the parking attendant guy (but then there are parking fees too). Is this a normal level of miscellaneous charges/skimming or should I ask why it's so high when just about everything else is accounted for?

[Scouse Mouse]

In my small one-room I was paying 52K, and in my new 3 bed place I am paying 78K. These figures both include elevator, communal lighting, leaning, etc. In both of them the fees were supposed to be paid in advance.

Depending on the size of your apartment, and your location (Seoul?) the fees could be considered reasonable. It may also be that you are paying the fees for last month AND the fees for next month combined.

[cdninkorea]

An adult student of mine told me that in the huge apartment complexes (think Lotte Castle, for example) the management fees can be as high as 500,000원 per month

[victorology]

[ernie]

am i out of line for requiring a breakdown of what my 'managment fee' entails? i've been talking to my school but they dismiss it out of hand, since i'm a foreigner and therefore retarded...

[michael5799042]

Mine is about 120,000 now.

[Whistleblower]

I pay around 150,000 원 per month but this is with a huge apartment complex in Bundang.

[doc_ido]

I live in a reasonably-sized (about 13 py I think) oneroom in Sinchon. It sounds like the charges aren't excessive - I just wondered as the utilities I actually use are all accounted for (the W70,000 portion) and then I'm stuck with this miscellaneous extra which could be the building staff soju fund for all I know.

[Underwaterbob]

My first two years here I lived in a villa. 관리비 없었어요 and I had never even heard of it. Now I live in an Officetel. The extra 60'000원 per month was a crappy surprise.

[jkelly80]

[Underwaterbob]

없다 past tense.

"There wasn't" or "Didn't exist"

있다 and 없다 are generally pretty hard to translate into English because they are used like the English verbs "be", "have", "not be" and "not have" and probably a couple others I can't remember examples for off the top of my head.

[BS.Dos.]

I'm in a good sized 3-bed apartment down south and am paying around the 57,000 mark each month.

[OiGirl]

No apartment management fees at my villa and it (halls/stairwell) gets cleaned almost every day.

Just separate and explicit bills for Internet (have no phone,) gas (cooking and heat/hot water,) and electric.

[KumaraKitty]

38 pyeong Apartel and we pay around 300,000won a month. People have moved in to the building and out a month later when they got the first bill the security guards told my hubby. I really, REALLY want to move into the new We've the State complex just down the road from us but hubby says they pay around 500,000won per month so he doesn't want to move.

[yingwenlaoshi]

You know what it is?

A big waste of money where someone is laughing all the way to the bank.

That's what it is.

Korea Corrupting