Korean Jeonse Deposit Priority Checker

This checker judges, from dates alone, how safe a jeonse tenant's deposit would be if the property went to auction. Enter the day you moved in, the day you registered your residence, the day you got the fixed date stamp on the contract, and the registration date of any prior mortgage on the property register. It tells you when your tenancy right takes effect, when your priority payment right takes effect, and whether that comes before or after the mortgage. With the deposit and region entered, it also tells you whether the small-deposit protection applies.

It deals in order, not amounts. When a property is auctioned, the proceeds are paid out in the order in which each right arose. A tenant's rights arise without any registration of their own, but the timing follows rules, and missing a single day can push the whole deposit behind the bank. That is why this page puts the dates in front of you.

Anyone who has pulled the property register before signing a jeonse lease. If there is a mortgage in the encumbrances section, you can see before you sign whether moving in and registering will put you ahead of it or whether you are already too late. It also helps you decide how to schedule the balance payment and the residence registration so that no gap opens up.

Existing tenants need it too. If you hear the landlord has taken a new loan, or a fresh mortgage appears on the register, enter the day your tenancy right arose and the mortgage's registration date to confirm your rank. And if you have not yet obtained the fixed date stamp, the checker flags the situation as dangerous, which is a good prompt to get it today.

A tenant's protection under 주택임대차보호법 comes in three layers. The first is the tenancy right in 제3조. Once you have taken possession of the home and completed resident registration, you can hold your tenancy against a new owner or an auction buyer without registering anything yourself. The checker takes the later of the two dates as the day the requirements were met and adds 1 day to get the effective date, because the statute says the right takes effect from the following day.

The second is the priority payment right in 제3조의2. A tenant who holds the tenancy right and has a fixed date stamp on the contract can claim a rank in the auction distribution. The checker takes the later of the tenancy effective date and the fixed date as the day this right arises, since a stamp obtained before moving in and registering has no effect until then. A mortgage takes effect on the day it is registered. So you rank ahead only if your tenancy effective date is on or before the mortgage date. If you move in and the mortgage is registered on the same day, the mortgage wins: your right starts at midnight the next day, theirs starts that day.

The third is the minimum-deposit protection in 제8조. A tenant whose deposit is at or below the regional threshold is paid a fixed amount ahead of the mortgage regardless of rank. In Seoul the threshold is a deposit of ₩165,000,000 and the protected amount is up to ₩55,000,000. These figures are amended often, and a real case applies the thresholds in force when the mortgage was registered rather than today's, so for an older mortgage you need to check the figures as they stood then.

Suppose you sign a ₩300 million jeonse lease in Seoul and, on 10 March, move in, register your residence and get the fixed date stamp all on the same day. The landlord, also on 10 March, borrows against the property and registers a mortgage. Your tenancy right arises at 00:00 on 11 March, the day after the requirements were met; the mortgage is effective from 10 March itself. The mortgage wins by one day, and because ₩300 million is above Seoul's ₩165,000,000 small-deposit threshold, the minimum-deposit protection does not help either. The checker returns "risky": at auction you would be paid only from what is left after the mortgage is settled.

Move the mortgage one day later, to 11 March, and the result flips. Your right takes effect at 00:00 on 11 March and the mortgage is registered during that day, so you rank ahead. The checker shows "you rank ahead" with a gap of 0 days. Keep the mortgage on 10 March but lower the deposit to ₩150 million and it is at or below the ₩165,000,000 threshold, so the minimum-deposit protection applies: the mortgage still ranks first, but up to ₩55,000,000 is paid to you ahead of it, and the verdict becomes "only partly protected".

The most common one is believing you are protected from the day you pay the balance and move in. The tenancy right starts at midnight the next day, so a loan the landlord takes on settlement day beats you by a day. The way to close that gap is a clause in the contract barring the landlord from registering a mortgage or any other right until the day after settlement, plus a fresh copy of the register pulled immediately before you hand over the balance.

The second is thinking that getting the fixed date stamp early is enough. The stamp sits on top of the tenancy right; without moving in and registering, it creates no rank at all. The reverse is also common: moving in and registering but putting off the stamp. A mortgage registered in the meantime pushes you down the distribution order. Do all three on the same day.

The third is a registered address that does not match the home. In a multi-household building, leaving out the unit number or reporting an old address can defeat the tenancy right. Finally, do not read the minimum-deposit figures only as they stand today. If the mortgage was registered years ago, the thresholds of that time apply and may be lower than the current ones. This checker uses the current rules, so with an older mortgage, verify the figures for that date separately.