Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rarityfish]

Hey all,

A co-worker of mine is stranded in the sticks, and wants to change his apartment (located in Seoul, Gangbuk-gu). Thing of it is, our hagwon is presumably lazy on these things, and for all intents and purposes won't offer a hand when it comes to the hassle of finding a new apartment and dealing with a lease, etc. So it looks like he's on his own.

So we're wondering what can be done--are there any resources for non-Korean speakers when it comes to changing apartments? Any words of advice would be much appreciated.

Much thanks,
Matt

[ED209]

Your co-worker would be asking their employer to break the tenancy lease. To do this without losing their deposit(which could be well over 10million in Seoul) they would have to find a new tenant to replace your friend. This usually involves a trip to the local bundangsan(?) estate agents. And a fee between 100,000-200,000 won. This could take over a month, due to the economic turn down fewer people are probably moving out of their family homes. Although January may be a good time to move if you live in an area that attracts uni students.

Then when you have found a new tenant you will have to a pay another fee to the bundangsan to move into the new apartment. Take your time finding the new place(the first place they show you will probably be an over-priced dive they are desperate to dump on you) and also try to haggle the price down. Landlords are losing money at the moment so it's time to take advantage of the buggers.

It may be best for your friend to find out when the lease expires as this would avoid the above headache.

Don't put up the deposit yourself, anything can happen at a hagwon and you don't want to be pulling a runner and losing 10m! Also 10m would do better in a bank back home than in your landlords pocket.

Your friend may also have to find something to barter with their lazy employer in order to get this done. Are they re-signing? Is there a lot of over-time coming up?