Korean Job Discussion Forums

[spark91]

My Korean wife and I just moved into a newer style villa in Seoul and the first thing I noticed when we moved in was the broken security door on the ground level (keypad doesn't work and door is always open). I told my wife to call our landlord but she's quite reluctant to as she doesn't want to cause any problems. We talked to another lady who lives downstairs about it and she said she had called her landlord (I guess there's multiple landlords in this building) to fix it but they just keep putting it off. According to my wife, getting it fixed would require all the landlords in the building to split the charge on it. It seems they're putting it off because they don't want to fix it ($$).

I can't really do anything until I convince my wife to make the call but if she does and our landlord refuses to fix it, what are my options?

[Stan Rogers]

Do you pay building fees each month? If so there may be money collected from all the tenants to pay for stuff like that. Villas vary. Some have building fees only for cleaning and may not cover repairs to common areas. Chances are they (the landlord(s) are just being cheap about it.

Here is a suggestion that might work. Perhaps you can put another lock on the door. Tell the landlord you plan to cut the door to install this fancy electric door lock. Tell him you don't feel safe with no working lock on the outside enterance. You can tell him that when you finish your housing contract you'll remove your new lock from the door. He will not like the idea of having a hole in his door after you move out someday, which he'll be forced to buy a new lock for. This might motivate him to fix the outside door.

[spark91]

Thanks for your reply.

We just pay a small cleaning fee each month. I've lived in villas before which only had a single landlord so it was much easier to get things done. I fear that this may be a struggle due to multiple landlords.

It's a sliding glass door so putting another lock on it is not really an option. I'm thinking of putting up a notice for the other tenants to notify their landlords and hopefully we can put some pressure on them to do it. I understand that my wife doesn't want to cause any problems between us and the landlord but this kind of stuff really bugs me.

Again, I can't really do anything until I get my landlord's view of the situation. Time to pressure the wife to call her.

[optik404]

Simple solution is to tell them firmly that you don't feel safe with the door being broken and that you won't be paying rent until it's fixed. It's the Korean way of handling landlord problems. If you try and be nice to them, they'll continue to blow you off.

[Stan Rogers]

[spark91]

Stan Rogers, I did misunderstand you. I see what you mean now. It's definitely a possibility. Thanks.

optik404, thanks for the advice. If it's not resolved within a month, I'm going to consider that.

I think I've finally convinced my wife to call her tomorrow. If the landlord blows her off, I'm taking action.

[Stan Rogers]

No problem. These landlords can be so freakin cheap sometimes. Just keep your cool and let your wife deal with it for now. Good luck.