Taken for a ride: Foreign students fall easy victim to rent fraud
Some landlords are targeting international students. Yonhap
By Jung Hae-myoung
International students here are increasingly falling victim to real estate-related fraud.
In one case, a Vietnamese student, 28, didn't get her room deposit of 5 million won back because her landlord said she didn't pay any monthly rent. But she claimed she paid six months' rent in a lump sum but didn't receive a receipt.
“The real estate procedure is complicated for international students,” one Chinese international student, surnamed Jing, told Dong-A Ilbo. “And it is harder to understand the jargon when they speak in Korean.”
Foreign students, now numbering 120,000 here, often fall victim to the fraud.
The paper cites four types. The first is a makeshift contract. Instead of a standard template contract, the landlords arbitrarily draw up one that does not protect the rights of foreign tenants.
The second is the cash transaction.
The third is the imposition of repair costs on the tenants. In the second and third cases, the landlord tries to take advantage of the foreign students' inability to speak Korean or lack of related knowledge.
The fourth is a conflict when a student sublets a room to another tenant without a contract, which a landlord can use as an excuse to eject the tenants.
International students can be protected under the Housing Lease Protection Act, once they finish foreigner registration and registration of their new residence.
They can also get help from the Housing Lease Dispute Conciliation Committee under the Korea Legal Aid Corp.
“Stayes,” a startup company established in 2014, lists houses for rent and provides information in different languages. It recently concluded 4000 contracts with international students.
For more information about the Housing Lease Dispute Conciliation Committee, visit: