Jeonse Fraud Prevention Checklist: What to Check Before, On and After Signing

Why jeonse fraud happens, and why a checklist works

Jeonse (전세) is a uniquely Korean lease: instead of paying monthly rent, you hand the landlord a large lump-sum deposit, often well over half of the home's value, and get it back in full when the lease ends. Because the sum is so large, a single overlooked detail can cost a tenant years of savings.

Most deposit losses fall into a handful of patterns. There is the underwater jeonse (깡통전세), where the deposit is close to or above the home's market value. There are contracts signed with someone who is not the registered owner, mortgages registered on the very day of the final payment, homes legally owned by a trust company but leased out by the former owner, multi-family houses where earlier tenants' deposits were hidden, and landlords whose unpaid taxes get paid before your deposit.

Each pattern has a matching check. Work through the stages below and you can filter out most risks before you sign anything. If the numbers feel overwhelming, enter the price, deposit and mortgage into our jeonse safety check to get a risk score first.

Stage 1: Before signing — choose the home and read the documents

Is it an underwater jeonse? Calculate two ratios

Start with the jeonse ratio: deposit divided by the home's sale price. Then calculate the burden ratio: (senior mortgages + earlier tenants' deposits + your deposit) divided by the price. For mortgages, use the "maximum secured amount" (채권최고액) shown in section B (eulgu) of the property registry, not the loan balance the landlord tells you.

Example: an apartment worth ₩300 million with a ₩240 million deposit has an 80% jeonse ratio. Add a mortgage with a ₩36 million maximum secured amount and the burden ratio becomes 92%. If the home goes to auction and sells at an assumed 85% of market value, the ₩255 million proceeds first pay the ₩36 million mortgage, leaving about ₩219 million, so roughly ₩21 million of your deposit could be lost. Our safety check uses the same approach, applying an average winning-bid rate by property type.

Check recent sale prices for the same complex and unit size on the MOLIT real transaction price system. For villas with few sales, also look up the official assessed price on Realty Price. New-build villas have no sales history, so their "appraised" values are easy to inflate. Base your estimate on nearby older buildings.

Five documents to review

1. Property registry (등기부등본): owner, mortgages, provisional seizures, auction records and trust status. See how to read the property register.
2. Building register (건축물대장): whether the building is flagged as illegal and what its legal use is. Commercial-use units converted into studios are often refused jeonse loans and deposit guarantees.
3. Landlord's tax payment certificates for national and local taxes. Unpaid taxes can be paid out before your deposit at auction. After signing, tenants above a certain deposit can view the landlord's unpaid national taxes at the tax office even without consent, but before signing, simply ask the landlord to provide the certificates.
4. Move-in household records and fixed-date status: for multi-family houses, these reveal earlier tenants and their deposits. Before signing, the landlord's consent is required.
5. Price evidence: save screenshots of sale prices and assessed values. They help with guarantee applications and any later dispute.

Trust-registered homes and multi-family houses

A trust-registered home shows "trust" (신탁) in section A (gapgu) of the registry, and the legal owner becomes a trust company. The former owner usually has no authority to lease the home alone, so a lease signed without the consent of the trust company and the priority beneficiary (typically the lending bank) may not be protected. Get the trust register from a registry office, confirm who can grant leases, and walk away if you cannot obtain original consent documents.

A multi-family house (다가구) holds several households but is registered as one detached house. At auction, the whole sale price is split among mortgages and earlier tenants in order of priority. Your own deposit may look small, but if earlier deposits add up, the home is underwater. Always confirm the total of earlier deposits in writing and include it in your burden ratio.

Stage 2: Signing day — verify the person and the money trail

1. Pull a fresh registry copy that day. New mortgages or seizures may have appeared since your last printout.
2. Match IDs. The person signing must match the registered owner. If an agent signs on the owner's behalf, demand a power of attorney and a seal certificate issued by the owner, and call the owner directly.
3. Verify the broker. Check the brokerage registration and its liability insurance certificate.
4. Send the down payment only to an account in the registered owner's name. Refuse requests to pay a broker or relative.
5. Write special clauses into the contract. Verbal promises are hard to prove later.

Clauses you can adapt

• The landlord will not register any new mortgage or other right until the day after the final payment. If breached, the tenant may cancel, and the landlord must immediately return all money received and compensate damages.
• If the tenant's deposit guarantee or jeonse loan is refused for reasons related to the home or the landlord, this contract is void and the down payment is returned immediately.
• The landlord confirms there are no unpaid national or local taxes as of the contract date. If untrue, the tenant may cancel.
• Where a senior mortgage is to be repaid from the final payment, the landlord repays it that day and hands the tenant the cancellation filing receipt.
• The landlord will notify the tenant in advance before selling the home or placing it in trust during the lease.

Wording should fit your situation. For large deposits or complex titles, a review by a legal professional is money well spent.

Stage 3: Final payment, move-in day and beyond

1. Check the registry once more right before the final payment.
2. Pay the balance to the owner's account and get a receipt.
3. On moving day, complete your move-in report and fixed-date stamp (확정일자, an official date stamp on your lease that secures your repayment priority). Protection starts at 00:00 the next day, so every day of delay widens the gap. Details are in our move-in report and fixed date guide.
4. Buy a deposit return guarantee as early as you can. Conditions and costs are covered in the deposit guarantee guide, and you may get part of the fee refunded; check eligibility on our support finder.
5. Keep the contract, receipts, registry copies and the stamped lease together.
6. Near the end of the lease, the landlord should give notice between six and two months before expiry, and the tenant at least two months before. If you must move out before getting your deposit back, first obtain a court-ordered lease registration (임차권등기명령) and move only after it is registered, so your rights survive.

The whole checklist at a glance

Common mistakes

• "The broker said it was fine." A broker's explanation sheet is information, not a guarantee. Read the documents yourself.
• "Interest support" on new villas. Generous perks can be bait for an inflated deposit. The bigger the perk, the harder you should check the price.
• Delaying the move-in report. You can file it online through Gov24, so do it on moving day.
• Leaving the guarantee for later. There is an application window, and once the landlord's situation worsens, you may be refused.