Deposit Protection Self-Check
Two rights protect a Korean deposit, and you create them yourself on specific days. Answer a few questions about what you’ve actually done. You’ll see which rights you hold and from what date, plus how much room the register leaves for your deposit.
A foreign resident can’t file 전입신고. That form is part of the resident-registration system Koreans use. The immigration version, 체류지 변경신고, counts in its place, and the law says so explicitly.
Leave it blank if you don’t have one yet. Filing the lease report gives you one automatically.
You’ll find it in 을구 of the 등기부등본 (the property register). “Senior” means registered before you, so it gets paid before your deposit. The figure is the maximum the lender reserved, not what the landlord still owes.
People often draw the line here for (senior claims + deposit) ÷ value. The law sets no line, so pick the one you’re comfortable with.
| Right to stay (대항력) from | — |
| Priority repayment (우선변제권) from | — |
Protection begins at 00:00 the day after you register, not the moment you file. A mortgage registered the same day takes effect immediately and ranks ahead of you.
On March 10, 2026 the government announced a plan to make 대항력 start the moment the report is processed. That bill is still before the National Assembly and is not in force. Plan around today’s rule.
| Market value | 300,000,000 KRW |
| Senior claims (채권최고액) | 0 KRW |
| Left after senior claims | 300,000,000 KRW |
| Your deposit | 20,000,000 KRW |
| Deposit not covered by what’s left | 0 KRW |
| Floor, once you qualify | 20,000,000 KRW |
The date the senior mortgage was registered decides which table applies, not the date of your lease. The figures here are the ones in force since 2023-02-21; an older mortgage is judged by the older, smaller table. You also have to actively claim (배당요구) in the auction — it is not automatic.
- File the address report the day you move in — not on day 15. Immigration allows 15 days; your deposit is unprotected for every one of them.
- Get 확정일자 on the lease. Any 주민센터 (community service center) will stamp it, and your 외국인등록증 (ARC) is accepted ID.
- This contract must be reported (전월세신고제) within 30 days of signing. Filing it with the contract attached gives you the 확정일자 in the same step.
- Your deposit is over 10,000,000 KRW, so you can look up the landlord’s unpaid national taxes without asking them. Any tax office will show you, right up to the day the lease starts.
- Check the 등기부등본 for a 신탁 entry before signing. If the home is in trust, signing with the original owner without the trustee’s consent gives you no rights at all.
This is an estimate, read back from your own answers. It is not a verdict on whether a home is safe, and it is not legal advice. The figures come from the 주택임대차보호법 시행령 and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, checked Aug 28, 2026. Nothing you enter is stored.
How it works
Because a foreign resident cannot file 전입신고 — that form belongs to the resident-registration system. Two other laws fill the gap. The Immigration Control Act lets 체류지 변경신고 take its place, and the Overseas Koreans Act does the same for 국내거소신고. In 2016 the Supreme Court confirmed that both carry the same 대항력. Most tools and most guides assume 전입신고 and quietly leave you out. This one asks which form you actually filed.
Because 대항력 does not start the day you register. It starts at 00:00 the next day, while a mortgage takes effect the moment it is filed. If you register on the day you hand over the balance, there is a window in which a new loan outranks your deposit. The tool compares the two dates you enter and tells you whether that window is open in your case.
It adds the senior claims on the register to your own deposit, then measures the total against the home’s value. The senior claim figure is 채권최고액, the ceiling a lender reserved, not the loan balance. That is the standard screening arithmetic. The level you compare it against is yours to set. Many people use 80%, but that is a rule of thumb, not a legal line.
It comes from the enforcement decree of the Housing Lease Protection Act. The version that applies has been in force since February 21, 2023. Each region has its own deposit ceiling. Come in under it and you count as a 소액임차인, which means a capped amount comes back to you ahead of even an older mortgage. One catch. The table version that applies to you is set by the date the senior mortgage was registered, not by the date of your lease.
Read next
Questions people ask
No, and it deliberately does not try. It reads back which rights your own answers give you and on what dates, and it does the arithmetic on the numbers you take from the property register. Whether a particular home is a reasonable risk depends on things no calculator sees — the owner, the building, the market, the contract. Use this to know where you stand, not to get a verdict.
In 을구 of the 등기부등본, the section for rights other than ownership. You can pull one for any property from the Supreme Court’s internet registry office (iros.go.kr) for a small fee, without the owner’s permission. Add up every 근저당권 (mortgage entry) that is still live and ahead of you. The 안심전세App also shows the loans registered ahead of you.
Especially then. A small deposit is the case the law protects most firmly: the 소액임차인 floor jumps ahead of even a bank. That only holds if you have possession and registration in place before the auction is registered, and if you file a claim when the proceeds are shared out (배당요구). The tool shows the floor for your region and the two conditions you have to meet.
Nothing. There is no login, no database and no server call — everything runs in your browser, and closing the tab throws your answers away. That is why the tool asks you for the numbers rather than looking anything up.
Figures as of Aug 28, 2026 — the rules and official sources are set out in the full deposit-protection guide.