Recently, due to the increasingly serious problem of rental disputes in South Korea, tenants have failed to fully exercise their legal rights due to lack of legal knowledge, especially insufficient understanding of the procedures and conditions for returning rental deposits, resulting in the inability to recover the deposit in time.
Some landlords will also maliciously take advantage of this situation, obviously returning the deposit immediately after the expiration of the lease contract, but claiming that the deposit can only be returned after the next tenant moves in, or falsely claiming that there is a 3-month buffer period for the return of the deposit after the expiration of the contract is the unspoken rule of the industry. In response to this series of evil operations by the landlord, the lessee can take the following two measures.
Send "Proof of Content (내용증명)": It is a good idea to send "Proof of Content" to the landlord before the lease contract expires. The termination date of the lease contract can be confirmed by means of proof of content, avoiding the default renewal of the contract. In addition, it can also prove in advance a series of contents such as the return of the security deposit, when to sign a new house, and how much deposit to pay, so that it can be properly guaranteed at that time.
For example, if the lease contract expires at the end of January and the lease contract for a new house is signed in February, the landlord will not return the security deposit in time, which will result in the inability to pay the security deposit for the new house and not be able to move into the new house. If you send proof of the relevant content in advance, you can ask the landlord to bear the deposit for the new house. Because the "proof of content" document mainly allows the landlord to know in advance the losses that the tenant may face and the fact that when the loss actually occurs, the landlord is required to bear the liability for damages.
Application for leasehold registration order: The lessee will have the right of priority (우선변제권) and the right of confrontation by applying for a "move-in declaration (전입신고)" and specifying the "date of determination (확정일자)". However, these rights will be forfeited if the deposit is not returned, if the relocation or change of the filing address is made. In order to avoid unreasonable loss of rights, apply for a leasehold registration order. With the issuance of a tenancy registration order, the original tenancy right will remain even if the relocation is moved or the declared address is changed.
What's more, through the registration order of tenancy rights, landlords can be pressured to return the security deposit quickly. Because the leasehold registration order is issued, a record will be left in the register, and the new tenant can check the record but is unwilling to sign the contract, and the value of the house will decline, and the landlord will bear greater losses. Therefore, most landlords want to avoid tenancy registration orders.
When it comes to a dispute over the deposit of the lease contract, the lessee can quickly return the security deposit through the above two methods, so it should correctly exercise its legal rights and minimize the loss. Applying for a tenancy registration order is a relatively simple way to easily put pressure on landlords as long as you follow the specific process step by step.
However, it turns out that the document is also a legal document after all, which may feel complicated, so it is recommended to consult a professional lawyer to judge the importance of the supporting document according to the specific situation. In foreign life, the housing issue is the most important issue, because a stable place to live can make people's lives stable. As foreigners, we should study Korean law better, understand contract matters, and correctly exercise our legitimate rights and interests so as not to get involved in various disputes.
Author: Li Minling, a doctoral candidate at Korea University