The imchagwon deunggi myeongnyeong — a court order registering a tenant's leasehold on the property register — is available to a tenant whose lease has ended and whose deposit has not been returned. Those are the only two requirements, and the landlord's consent is not among them. With one landlord, one tenant and a single property, the filing cost comes to 43,400 won.
What matters most is when the protection attaches. Not the day the application is filed, nor the day the court issues its ruling. Only once the leasehold is actually entered on the property register can the tenant move out and transfer their resident registration while keeping opposing power (daehangnyeok) and priority repayment rights intact.
Only two conditions
As Easy Law, the government legal information service, summarises Article 3-3(1) of the Housing Lease Protection Act, the requirements are that the lease has ended and that the deposit has not been returned. A lease still running does not qualify; conversely, a partially returned deposit still supports an application for the unreturned balance.
Proving the lease has ended is where the practical work sits. Expiry is evident from the contract itself, but where a tenant has terminated a lease that rolled over by implied renewal, the record must also show that notice reached the landlord and that three months have since passed. Certified-content mail (naeyong jeungmyeong) records are what serve that purpose.
Jurisdiction lies with the district court, branch court or city/county court covering the location of the leased home. Individual courts publish their document lists — the Incheon District Court guidance is one example — and online filing through the Supreme Court's electronic litigation portal is also available. Attachments include the property register extract, the lease contract, evidence of occupancy and resident registration, and the dated contract if a fixed date (hwakjeong ilja) was obtained.
Costs start at 43,400 won and rise with the parties
The itemised figures published by the same source are a 2,000 won revenue stamp, a 3,000 won registration stamp per property, service fees of 5,200 won for each of six deliveries, and 7,200 won in registration licence tax plus local education tax. The six deliveries are three to the landlord and three to the tenant, so adding parties raises the service cost in blocks of three.
Applying those rules to different configurations gives the following.
| Parties and property | Stamp (won) | Registration stamp (won) | Service fees (won) | Licence + education tax (won) | Total (won) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 landlord · 1 tenant · 1 property | 2,000 | 3,000 | 31,200 | 7,200 | 43,400 |
| 2 landlords (joint title) · 1 tenant · 1 property | 2,000 | 3,000 | 46,800 | 7,200 | 59,000 |
| 1 landlord · 2 tenants (joint) · 1 property | 2,000 | 3,000 | 46,800 | 7,200 | 59,000 |
| 1 landlord · 1 tenant · 2 properties | 2,000 | 6,000 | 31,200 | 14,400 | 53,600 |
Jointly titled landlords make three parties, hence nine deliveries and 46,800 won. Registration stamps and licence tax follow the number of properties, so a lease covering two units doubles those two lines only. Service-fee rates can be adjusted by court and over time, so checking the relevant court's guidance before filing is the safer course.
Set against the deposit, the cost is small. 43,400 won is 0.043% of a 100 million won deposit, 0.022% of 200 million, and 0.009% of 500 million — a fraction of what jeonse deposit insurance charges in annual premiums. Article 3-3(8) further provides that the tenant may claim the costs of the application and the registration from the landlord.
What moving out too early costs
Opposing power and priority repayment survive only while the tenant keeps both occupancy and resident registration at the address. The rule that grants opposing power from midnight following a move-in report works in reverse here: the moment the belongings leave and the registration is transferred, the priority position disappears, and any mortgage recorded in the interval ranks ahead.
Leasehold registration severs that dependency. The main text of Article 3-3(5) provides that a tenant who has not yet acquired opposing power or priority repayment acquires them when the leasehold registration is completed. The proviso to the same paragraph provides that a tenant who already holds them retains them even after losing the qualifying conditions, provided the loss occurs after registration.
Sequence is decisive. Move only after the registration is complete. Transferring the resident registration while the application is merely filed, or while the ruling has been issued but not yet recorded, leaves an unprotected gap. Confirming that the leasehold actually appears in section 2 (eulgu) of the register comes before any moving date.
One more consequence: Article 3-3(6) provides that anyone who leases the property after the leasehold registration is completed cannot claim the small-deposit priority repayment. A property showing a leasehold registration on its register is one where a deposit is already in dispute, and a new tenant there stands outside that safety net.
What protects a deposit is not the application on file, but the line actually entered on the property register.
What changed in July 2023
Registration used to be requested only after the court's ruling had been served on the landlord. A landlord who vacated the address or refused mail could stall registration indefinitely, and the tenant could not move out in the meantime. The structure caused recurring problems in cases of delayed deposit returns.
According to the Ministry of Justice notice, the amendment effective 19 July 2023 allows the registration of a housing leasehold to be requested before the ruling is served on the landlord. A supplementary provision extends the amendment to orders issued before the effective date that had not yet been served on it.
In practice the wait between ruling and registration has shrunk. The time the court takes to rule and the registry office takes to process remain unchanged, so a tenant with a moving date set just after expiry is still better off filing early rather than close to the deadline.
What to check
- Evidence the lease ended — secure the expired contract, or the dispatch and receipt records of the termination notice, before filing
- Section 2 of the property register — check existing mortgages before filing, and confirm after filing that the leasehold has actually been entered
- Moving date — transfer the resident registration and move only after registration is confirmed complete
- Number of parties — jointly titled landlords raise both the delivery count and the cost; confirm the court's current service-fee rate
- Number of properties — registration stamps and licence tax scale with the count of properties covered
- Right to reclaim costs — the costs are claimable from the landlord, so keep the receipts
- Before signing a new lease — a property already carrying a leasehold registration is excluded from small-deposit priority repayment