Korean Small-Deposit Tenant Priority Payment Calculator

When a rented home goes to auction, the proceeds are paid out in order of priority, and a tenant normally ranks behind a mortgage registered earlier. Tenants with the smallest deposits would walk away with nothing, so 주택임대차보호법 제8조 lets "small-deposit tenants", those whose deposit is under a set ceiling, recover a fixed portion of the deposit ahead of other secured creditors. That is the priority repayment. This calculator takes the region, your deposit, the value of the house and the number of small-deposit tenants in the building, and tells you whether you qualify and, if so, how much you can recover ahead of the others.

The amount is settled in two stages. First, the deposit must be at or below the regional ceiling to qualify. If it is, you receive the lower of the regional fixed amount and your own deposit. Finally, a cap applies: the total paid to all small-deposit tenants cannot exceed half the value of the house.

The best time is before signing a lease. Moving into a home that already carries a mortgage, you can keep your deposit under the ceiling so that even in the worst case a fixed amount is protected. Sometimes lowering the deposit slightly is enough to qualify, so check the ceiling here while negotiating terms.

Tenants who have received an auction notice on their current home use it too. Knowing roughly whether you qualify and how much you can expect lets you file a demand for distribution and plan the next move. Bear in mind that in a real case the Enforcement Decree in force when the mortgage was registered applies, not today's, so the calculator's figures are the current standard only.

The basis is 주택임대차보호법 제8조 and 시행령 제10조·제11조. 제11조 divides the country into 4 zones and sets the deposit ceiling for qualifying in each; 제10조 sets the fixed amount each zone protects. In Seoul, a deposit of ₩165,000,000 or less qualifies for up to ₩55,000,000; in other areas, ₩75,000,000 or less qualifies for up to ₩25,000,000. The over-concentration zone and the metropolitan cities sit in between, and the full table is below the form.

The calculation runs like this. A deposit above the ceiling does not qualify and gets ₩0. Within the ceiling, the base figure is the lower of the fixed amount and the deposit, because a tenant who paid ₩40,000,000 cannot recover ₩55,000,000. Lastly, under 시행령 제10조제2항, if the total for all small-deposit tenants exceeds half the value of the house including land, it is shared out within that limit in proportion to each tenant's fixed amount. The calculator approximates by assuming all tenants are alike and splitting equally. Separate from the amounts, you must have taken possession and registered your address before the auction application was recorded; the calculator does not test that.

Take the calculator's defaults: Seoul, a deposit of ₩150,000,000, a house worth ₩400,000,000 and one small-deposit tenant. The deposit is within the Seoul ceiling of ₩165,000,000, so it qualifies, and the fixed amount of ₩55,000,000 is less than the deposit, so that is the base figure. Half the house value is ₩200,000,000, well above it, so the cap does not bite and ₩55,000,000 is recovered ahead of the mortgagee. With a deposit of ₩40,000,000 the answer is the whole ₩40,000,000; with ₩170,000,000 the ceiling is exceeded by ₩5,000,000 and there is no entitlement.

Now a case where the cap bites. In a multi-unit house worth ₩300,000,000 with four Seoul small-deposit tenants, each is entitled to ₩55,000,000 for a total of ₩220,000,000, but half the house value is ₩150,000,000. The total is squeezed into that limit, and each tenant gets ₩37,500,000. The more tenants a building has, the more this cap decides the real figure.

The first is expecting a partial payment when the deposit is slightly over the ceiling. Even ₩10,000 over takes you out of priority repayment altogether, although a preferential right backed by a fixed-date stamp survives separately and pays out in order of rank. The second is assuming today's table applies to your case. The decree in force when the mortgage was registered governs, so an old mortgage means the lower amounts of that time. Check the registration date on the property register first.

The third is treating the amount as the only condition. You must have actually moved in and registered your address before the auction application was recorded; a single day late disqualifies you. For foreigners, alien registration and a change-of-residence report take the place of resident registration. The fourth is family members in one household signing separate leases to claim separately; tenants sharing a household are treated as one and their deposits are added together. The fifth is assuming the fixed amount is paid in full: with many tenants and a low house value, the half-value cap reduces it.