Money you get first even at auction — priority payment is set by the table on the mortgage date, not the contract date

A Seoul jeonse tenant with a ₩160M deposit sees the home go to auction. The bank's mortgage was registered first, so in the order of distribution the tenant comes after. Yet ₩55M is paid ahead of the bank. In the next block, in the same kind of home, a tenant with a ₩170M deposit receives nothing first. A ₩10M difference splits ₩55M. This is priority payment. If the deposit falls within the table's ceiling, the table's amount is paid ahead of any secured creditor, and the table is not the one at contract time but the one on the day the bank registered its mortgage. Most tenants believe a fixed date makes them safe and sign without knowing the table exists, whether they fall within it, or which date's table applies. It is often assumed small deposits are protected automatically, but over the ceiling there is nothing.

Step ② The table, revised 21 February 2023. Seoul: ₩55M for deposits of ₩165M or less. The overconcentration control area, Sejong, Yongin, Hwaseong and Gimpo: ₩48M for ₩145M or less. Metropolitan cities, Ansan, Gwangju, Paju, Icheon and Pyeongtaek: ₩28M for ₩85M or less. Elsewhere: ₩25M for ₩75M or less. Seoul ₩160M gets ₩55M and ₩170M has no line at all, which is where the two tenants in the opening parted. It is a cliff, the line vanishing above the ceiling, and not knowing, tenants set the deposit a little high and throw away the ₩55M line.

Step ④ The cap is half the home's value, shared among several tenants. The total is up to half the value including land, so even a Seoul ₩160M deposit is capped at ₩40M if the home is worth ₩80M. With several tenants it is shared pro rata: a ₩200M home with three small-deposit tenants gives ₩100M ÷ 3, ₩33.33M each, and tenants living together like a family count as one with deposits combined. The table amount is a ceiling, not a guarantee, which confuses people; not knowing, you receive a third in a multi-unit house. The pre-contract checklist is three lines: ① the mortgage date on the registry → that day's decree table; ② is your deposit within the regional ceiling and what is the amount, negotiating downward if near the ceiling; ③ half the home's value and the number of other tenants, asking about earlier deposits in a multi-unit house. With three lines, the priority-payment check is done; register and get the fixed date on moving day. The whole deposit is the return guarantee in the previous lecture.

All four steps are passed: a separate line, the regional table, the mortgage date, half the value and the tenant count. Seoul ₩160M gets ₩55M and ₩170M gets ₩0 on the table's ceiling. Delay registration and lose the first line, miss the ceiling and lose ₩55M, ignore the date and face the old table. Two things to do now: find the mortgage date on the registry and read that day's table, and negotiate the deposit downward if near the ceiling. Old tables and the scope of the overconcentration area can be checked with the Korea Legal Aid Corporation or the jeonse fraud support center. It is the table on the mortgage date, not the contract date.