Korean Lease Renewal Notice Deadline Calculator

A residential lease in Korea does not simply end when the expiry date arrives. There is a window in which the tenant can demand to stay on, a window in which the landlord can give notice that they cannot, and if neither side says anything the lease rolls over on the same terms. Enter one date, the lease expiry, and this calculator shows when that window opens and closes, whether today falls inside it, and what the new expiry date will be if the lease is renewed.

It does not deal with money. How much the rent can rise on renewal is answered separately by the rent cap calculator. The only question here is "by when do I have to speak". Miss the date and the right itself disappears, which is why it comes before any question about the amount.

Tenants with about half a year left on their lease. If you want to stay, you have to tell the landlord within the period in which the renewal right can be exercised, and that period opens 6 months before expiry and closes 2 months before. Speak earlier and it has no effect; speak later and you are too late. Even if you plan to move out, you need to say so by 2 months before expiry to avoid an automatic rollover.

Landlords use the same tool. To have the tenant leave or to change the terms, you must refuse renewal or give notice of the change inside the same window. Miss it and the lease continues for another 2 years on the old terms even if the tenant says nothing. Buyers who intend to live in a property with a sitting tenant also start here, to see how the closing date lines up with the tenant's expiry.

The rules are 주택임대차보호법 제6조, 제6조의2 and 제6조의3. 제6조 covers implied renewal. If the landlord gives no notice of refusal or of changed terms between 6 months and 2 months before expiry, and the tenant gives no notice by 2 months before, the lease is treated as renewed on the same terms for 2 years. 제6조의2 lets the tenant terminate an implied renewal at any time, taking effect 3 months after notice.

제6조의3 is the tenant's right to demand renewal. If the tenant demands it within the same window, the landlord cannot refuse without a legitimate ground, and the renewed lease runs for 2 years. The right can be used 1 time only. The grounds for refusal are listed in 제1항, 9 of them, the typical ones being two months of unpaid rent, serious damage to the property, demolition or reconstruction, and the landlord or their immediate family actually moving in.

The arithmetic is simple. Subtract 6 months from the expiry date for the first day of the window and 2 months for the last. If today is before the first day the calculator says "too early", inside the window "open", past the last day "closed", and it counts the days in each case. The renewed expiry is the original expiry plus 2 years.

Say the lease expires on 31 March 2027. The notice window opens 6 months before, on 30 September 2026, and closes 2 months before, on 31 January 2027. A tenant who wants to use the renewal right has to tell the landlord within those four months, and a landlord who wants to refuse renewal has to give notice within the same period.

If the tenant demanded renewal inside that window, or if neither side said anything, the lease runs for another 2 years, to 31 March 2029. If the renewal right has already been used once on this lease, switch on "already used": the calculator will show that no demand is possible even though the window is open. Implied renewal can still occur in that case, so the landlord's notice deadline keeps its meaning.

The most common is believing that "two months before expiry" is the deadline and then missing it by a single unsent message. The last day is 2 months before expiry, not the expiry date. Next is giving notice only by word of mouth. If it comes to a dispute you will need to prove when you gave notice, so use something that leaves a dated record, such as a text message or registered mail.

Confusing the renewal right with implied renewal is also frequent. The renewal right is 2 years the tenant obtains by demanding it, and it is available 1 time; implied renewal arises from silence on both sides and has no limit on how often it can happen. Under an implied renewal the tenant may leave at any time on 3 months' notice, but the landlord is bound for the full 2 years. Finally, a landlord who refuses renewal on the ground of moving in and then lets the property to someone else without a legitimate reason owes damages to the tenant who left. The ground for refusal has to be real.