ENGLISH

- Foreign students can obtain information on houses to lease from their schools' bulletin board, local fliers, real estate agents, and other sources. Using a real estate agent is a convenient way to find a house: for a commission, the agent checks applicable legal matters, visits the actual house, and provides other such services (Article 32(1) of the 「Business Affairs of Licensed Real Estate Agents Act」).

- When foreign students have selected several houses of interest, they should access the registered records of the houses or obtain a certificate of registered matters verifying such records to check matters related to the identification of the properties, their ownership, superficies, easement, chonsegwon (right to lease on a deposit basis), mortgage, lease rights, etc., to ensure a safe transaction (Articles 3 and 19 of the 「Registration of Real Estate Act」).

- To access the registered records or to obtain a certificate of registered matters, you can go to a registry office, Gu office, or the registry website of the Supreme Court (http://www.iros.go.kr) [Article 19 of the 「Registration of Real Estate Act」, Articles 26 through 32 of the 「Registration of Real Estate Rule」, and the 「Guidelines on the Handling of Perusal of Registers record on the Internet, etc.」(Established Rule on Registration No.1761 of the Supreme Court), issued on December 14, 2022, and enforced on December 16, 2022].

- If the house to lease is not an apartment, other registers than the real estate register like the land and building registers should be checked to know whether the indication of the house to lease is the same as what is entered on the real estate register. Also, the area or a district designated for special utilization, future development plan, etc. regarding the location of the house should also be checked.

- The content of land ledger and building ledger can be ascertained at the relevant city hall, gun office or district office or the Government 24 Homepage. ([The Building Act, Article 38; The Rules on Filling in and Management of Building Ledger, Article 11 (1) and (7))

- After checking the real estate register, the foreign student should visit the actual house and check the residential environment to decide whether to lease it.

- A house lease contract should be concluded with the owner of the house to lease as indicated on the real estate register to minimize the possibility of a future dispute.

- Before concluding a contract, one should check the ID card of the contracting party to determine whether that person is the person indicated on the real estate register. If dealing with his proxy, one should also check the power of attorney and the owner's seal impression certificate.

- A house lease contract shall be jointly written by the lessor and lessee (a foreign student in this case). A lease contract shall clearly indicate the personal identities of the parties to the transaction, object of lease, lease amount, date of payment thereof, term of lease, and other conditions (Article 26.(1) of the 「Business Affairs of Licensed Real Estate Agents Act」 and Article 22.(1) of the「Enforcement Decree of the Business Affairs of Licensed Real Estate Agents Act」).

- When concluding a lease contract, the amount corresponding to 10% of the lease deposit is customarily paid as a down payment. If the contract is cancelled before implementation, this down payment shall become the basis for calculating damages for the lessor(Articles 398.(4) and 565.(1) of the 「Civil Act」).

- The balance is usually paid on the day of moving in. At this time, one should check the real estate register once again to ascertain whether there has been any change to the real estate rights after conclusion of the lease contract.

- Even though it is not registered, if the lessee has occupied the leased house and completed a move-in report, the lease shall take effect against a third person on the following day thereof (Article 3.(1) of the 「Housing Lease Protection Act」). In other words, the lease becomes subject to application of the 「Housing Lease Protection Act」 and is legally protected when an issue like an auction occurs.

- Persons protected under the 「Housing Lease Protection Act」 are ordinary citizens with ROK nationality. Therefore, in principle, foreigners are not protected under the 「Housing Lease Protection Act」(Article 1 of the 「Housing Lease Protection Act」): Provided that if a foreigner who has leased a house makes a report on change in the sojourn residence that corresponds to a move-in report, he shall be protected under the 「Housing Lease Protection Act」 as an exception (Article 88-2.(2) of the 「Immigration Control Act」 and Case 93Gahap73367 decision (final and conclusive) delivered on December 16, 1993 by the 11th department of the Seoul Civil District Court).

- Therefore, if a foreigner moves into a leased house, he shall make a report on the change of the sojourn residence to the head of Si/Gun/Gu (including a non-autonomous Gu), or the head of Eup/Myeon/Dongof the new sojourn residence or the head of the office or branch office with jurisdiction over the new sojournre sidence within 15 days from the date on which he moves in (Article 36 (1) of the Immigration Control Act).

- A fixed date is a legally recognized date to prove the existence of a house lease contract on the date. Any lessee who has met the requirements for opposing power [occupancy of the house + move-in report (report on change in the sojourn residence)] and obtained a fixed date on the lease contract shall have the preferential repayment right (Article 3-2.(2) of the「Housing Lease Protection Act」).

- A fixed date can be received from ① a district court (including branches), registry office or notary's office (notary, notary's office, or law firm) or from ② the head of the Eup/Myeon/Dong when making a move-in report [Article 77-2.(2) of the 「Notary Public Act」, Matters to Consider in Form No. 15 of the 「Enforcement Decree of the Resident Registration Act」, and Article 2 of the 「Established Rule on the Handling of Tasks for Fixing Dates for Private Documents」].