Residential Lease Agreement

About this template

When to use it

A one-sheet summary of the terms of a lease over a residential building — an apartment, a villa, a detached house, or an officetel actually used as a home. Do not use it for shops: commercial premises fall under a different statute. Everything here assumes the Housing Lease Protection Act, the Korean law giving residential tenants their deposit protections.

One thing first. This file is a one-page summary with no articles and no special-terms box. For the contract you actually sign, use the Standard Residential Lease Agreement published by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This form is safest as the sheet you work through beforehand, lining the terms up and checking nothing is missing.

What is in the file

• The label “Housing Lease Protection Act applies · residential building” above the title, and one gray line under it: “Complete it in order, from Description of the property through Restoration and return of the deposit.”
• A four-cell header table — Lessor · Lessee · Property address · Date of contract — pre-filled with “Kim ○○ (owner of record)”, “Park ○○”, an address and 2026-03-02.
• Three numbered items: 1. Description of the property / 2. Deposit and rent / 3. Opposing power and the fixed date stamp.
• A Key metrics table: Deposit KRW 300,000,000 · Monthly rent KRW 1,200,000 · Lease term 2 years · Rent due date 25th monthly.
• A Confirmation and approval table with three seal boxes — “Lessor (seal)”, “Lessee (seal)”, “Licensed broker (seal)”.

Filling order

1. The lessor cell reads “Kim ○○ (owner of record)” for a reason. Pull the certified copy of the property register and check that the registered owner and the person signing are the same; if not, verify the authority to act first.
2. 1. Description of the property — copy it across exactly as the register reads. Do not round the unit number or the floor area.
3. 2. Deposit and rent — the deposit split into down payment, interim payment and balance; the rent and the day it falls due; and what the maintenance fee covers versus what is billed on top. Leave the maintenance items out and that is where the first argument lands.
4. 3. Opposing power and the fixed date stamp — the most important box on the sheet. See below.

Two Korean procedures that protect the deposit

• Opposing power (daehangnyeok) lets a tenant assert the lease against anyone who later buys the building. It arises at midnight on the day after the tenant both takes possession and files the resident move-in report. Hence the sample bullet “On the balance date, take possession and file the resident move-in report the same day”. Slip by a day and any right registered in the gap ranks ahead of you.
• The fixed date stamp (hwakjeong-ilja) is a dated certification placed on the contract by a community center, a registry office or the online registry. Combined with opposing power it creates the priority repayment right: if the building is sold at auction, your deposit is repaid ahead of creditors ranking after that date.
• Before signing, check the maximum claim amount of any senior mortgage on the register. Where that figure plus your deposit approaches the market value, an auction may leave nothing for you.

Worth adding as special terms

There is no special-terms box here, so add lines under item 2 or use the standard agreement’s own box. Three are worth the space: how far the lessor’s repair duty runs (name the boiler and water leaks); whether pets, subletting and a change of use are allowed; and a promise of no further mortgage before the balance date.

Common mistakes

• Writing a one-year term and assuming you must leave after a year. Under the Housing Lease Protection Act a tenant may insist on two years even where a shorter term was agreed.
• Asking to renew at the last minute. The request has to be made between six months and two months before expiry, and on renewal the rent may rise by no more than 5%.
• Moving out while the deposit is still unpaid. Obtain a court order registering the lease right first, or opposing power and the priority repayment right are lost the moment you go.
• Reading this page as legal advice. It is not. Deposits at this scale deserve a qualified professional’s eye before anyone signs.