Review a Korean rental-deposit payment after garnishment
This calculator uses 2026 South Korean housing-lease and civil-execution rules.
It is designed for a landlord who owes a tenant a deposit refund and receives a court order or a bank notice concerning that refund claim.
The landlord is the third-party debtor in the attachment proceedings; the tenant remains the debtor whose refund claim is affected.
Paying the tenant after service can expose the landlord to a second payment demand for the affected amount.
Holding every won without checking the legal scope can also delay a refund and the tenant’s move.
The tool separates proposed tenant and rights-holder payments, an amount to review for court deposit and an amount withheld for legal review.
It does not determine creditors’ final court distributions.
A planned allocation is different from a payment ready today
Check the refund’s due date and delivery of the home or the applicable concurrent-performance conditions.
If those conditions are incomplete, the result remains a planned settlement.
A balanced table does not establish that a transfer is currently due, that an order is valid or that a court deposit will be accepted.
Documents and input meanings
Deposit and supported deductions
Prepare the lease principal, rent payment history, management-charge settlement and restoration evidence.
Enter deductions only after their legal basis is checked.
A quotation, an unrelated debt or an additional restoration-security agreement does not automatically establish a deductible lease debt.
The claim scope in the order’s schedule
A creditor’s total claim can differ from the part of the refund covered by the order.
Use the amount that the schedule actually applies to this same deposit-refund claim.
A label such as ‘Bank notice’ or ‘Creditor A’ is enough to distinguish records without entering real names.
Actual arrival and current effectiveness
Use delivery to the landlord, rather than issue or postal dispatch dates.
Distinguish provisional attachment, attachment alone, collection order, transfer order, pledge and assignment.
A Korean transfer order requires finality; an order planned for future delivery is not treated as currently served.
Bank rights and requests for deposit
Check notice or consent with a certified date, the actual right’s validity and scope, and the secured debt’s maturity for a pledge.
A distribution demand, service of that demand, a participating creditor’s deposit request and an attaching creditor’s deposit request are separate facts.
Do not combine them into one general ‘creditor contacted me’ entry.
Enter up to 5 current orders or notices.
A provisional attachment followed by its conversion to a final attachment may concern the same claim rather than two independent debts.
First reconcile conversions, releases, cancellations, amendments and previous payments so that duplicated records do not create artificial competition.
2026 small-deposit reference limits by region
Civil Execution Act Article 246(1)(6) refers to amounts preferentially repayable under Housing Lease Protection Act Article 8 and its Enforcement Decree.
The following are reference limits under Enforcement Decree Articles 10 and 11, using the decree effective 2026-07-01.
Compare the tenant-eligibility ceiling with the original deposit, rather than the balance after deductions.
Korean small-deposit eligibility ceilings and reference protected-amount limits in 2026| Region | Deposit ceiling, KRW | Reference protection, KRW |
|---|
| Seoul | 165,000,000 | 55,000,000 |
| Overconcentration control areas outside Seoul; Sejong, Yongin, Hwaseong and Gimpo | 145,000,000 | 48,000,000 |
| Qualifying metropolitan-city areas; Ansan, Gwangju, Paju, Icheon and Pyeongtaek | 85,000,000 | 28,000,000 |
| Other areas | 75,000,000 | 25,000,000 |
The third group excludes metropolitan-city areas within the overconcentration control zone and county areas.
Confirm the actual address’s statutory category instead of inferring it from a broad province or city name.
Small-deposit protection involves possession and resident-registration requirements; absence of a certified date on the lease alone does not automatically rule it out.
Enter the case’s verified protected amount
The regional figure is a reference upper limit, not an automatically established exemption.
The home-value 1/2 limit, allocation among several tenants, security-right dates, transitional provisions and court changes to the protected scope can affect the case.
Enter the protected amount checked by the court or a qualified professional using the actual records.
When that amount is unconfirmed, the tool withholds allocation of an enforcement-affected refund for review rather than treating ‘unknown’ as a confirmed zero.
Refund and allocation formulas
Refund after checked deductions
R = max(0, principal − rent arrears − management charges − restoration cost)
E = min(R, verified protected amount)
S = max(0, R − E)
Amounts are whole Korean won.
When deductions exceed principal, the refund is zero and the excess is shown separately; the excess is not certified as a recoverable claim against the tenant.
Reducing a deposit through deductions does not turn an originally ineligible deposit into a small-deposit case.
Keep the long-term repair reserve separate
A reimbursement of a long-term repair reserve paid by the tenant is shown as separate settlement A.
It is not automatically added to the attached deposit-refund claim.
Check whether the order’s actual schedule reaches any additional settlement claim.
The total settlement displayed is R + A, with the refund allocation and separate reserve settlement distinguished.
Proposed payments, court-deposit review and legally unresolved amounts must add back to the refund.
This arithmetic check helps keep money from disappearing between categories.
It does not establish deduction legality, current payment readiness or the legal effectiveness of any order.
A verified amount reflecting a court scope change can exceed the regional reference limit: the tool warns and caps application at R rather than automatically reducing it to the table figure.
Collection, transfer and the separate court-deposit branches
Collection and final transfer orders
Civil Execution Act Article 229 distinguishes collection authority from a transfer of the attached claim in lieu of payment.
Attachment alone does not establish collection authority.
A transfer order needs finality under Article 229(7), and Article 229(5) requires review of another creditor’s attachment, provisional attachment or distribution demand existing by service.
A small aggregate amount does not by itself establish a valid transfer order.
Article 248(1): optional court-deposit route
This provision permits deposit of the full monetary claim related to attachment.
Provisional attachment can also support a deposit review through Article 291, but its existence alone is not an automatic mandatory-deposit rule.
In the default plan involving provisional attachment, attachment alone or an unfinalized transfer, the tool reviews all S for deposit rather than recommending deposit of just a sliced-out attached amount.
Article 248(2): served distribution demand and participating creditor’s request
After service of a distribution-demand document, a participating creditor’s request triggers deposit of the attached portion.
A reported distribution demand without confirmed service or the relevant request is different.
The result distinguishes the statutory minimum under this paragraph from its default full-S deposit plan, which also uses the option in Article 248(1).
Article 248(3): competing attachments and the relevant creditor’s request
If repeated attachment or provisional attachment exceeds the previously unattached remainder and the relevant creditor requests deposit, review deposit of the whole claim.
The calculation treats S as the enforcement-affected scope after a lawfully verified protected amount has been excluded.
Competition without the required request remains distinct from this mandatory branch; the tool does not invent proportional payouts among creditors.
Multiple transfer orders, uncertain service sequence or another distribution demand can require individual legal review.
The calculator does not resolve those questions merely because the amounts fit within S.
Confirm the precise deposit scope, the treatment of any protected part and the court’s instructions against the actual order schedules.
Four worked examples using KRW 100,000,000
These synthetic examples use the refund reference date 2026-11-07, R = KRW 100,000,000, no deductions and no separate reserve settlement.
For the enforcement examples, the case’s protected amount has independently been verified as KRW 55,000,000, making S = KRW 45,000,000.
They assume the refund and handover conditions and the relevant rights are confirmed; the regional table alone does not establish the exemption.
One KRW 30,000,000 collection order
With no other restriction or distribution demand and confirmed collection authority, the creditor’s proposed amount is KRW 30,000,000.
The tenant’s proposed amount is KRW 70,000,000: the protected KRW 55,000,000 plus KRW 15,000,000 outside attachment.
Recheck the recipient, bank account, order scope and receipt before payment.
One KRW 30,000,000 provisional attachment
No direct payment to the provisional-attaching creditor is proposed.
The tenant’s proposed amount is KRW 55,000,000 and the full S, KRW 45,000,000, is reviewed for optional deposit.
This does not mean that depositing only KRW 30,000,000 and paying out the remainder has been established as valid.
KRW 30,000,000 collection plus KRW 20,000,000 provisional attachment
The combined KRW 50,000,000 exceeds S of KRW 45,000,000 under the same-claim assumption.
With the relevant attaching creditor’s deposit request, Article 248(3) applies to the KRW 45,000,000 deposit review; the tenant’s proposed amount is KRW 55,000,000.
Without that request, distinguish the optional-deposit branch and leave final creditor distributions to the proper proceedings.
One verified KRW 60,000,000 assignment
With a valid standalone assignment, confirmed scope and no other restriction, the assignee’s proposed amount is KRW 60,000,000 and the tenant’s is KRW 40,000,000.
Do not mechanically reserve the enforcement exemption before applying a voluntary assignment.
An assignment mixed with attachment follows the review branch instead of this standalone example.
Bank pledges, assignments and notice-arrival priority
Civil Act Articles 349 and 450 govern the relevant notice or consent requirements.
Check whether certified-date requirements for effectiveness against other parties have been met.
The date printed as the certified date is not itself the priority timestamp.
Supreme Court case 93Da24223, decided 1994-04-26, compares actual arrival of certified-date notice or the time of certified-date consent.
Same-day arrival or an unknown sequence
When notices arrive on the same day without proof of sequence, simultaneous arrival can be presumed.
The tool does not choose a winner from row order or the larger claim.
Several private rights or a pledge or assignment mixed with enforcement orders produces an indicative arrival comparison and an amount withheld for review.
A creditor-uncertainty deposit or a mixed deposit has additional grounds and documents that need separate review.
Under Civil Act Article 353, a pledgee may directly claim money within its own claim’s limit.
If the deposit-refund claim matures before the secured loan claim, Article 353(3) provides a deposit-request route.
Do not treat an unmatured loan as an automatic immediate bank transfer.
Even a single pledge requires confirmation of its effective scope, current secured debt and maturity before a payment candidate is ready for review.
From lease records to a payment or deposit checklist
- Confirm principal and refund timing. Reconcile termination, handover and concurrent-performance conditions, keeping planned settlement distinct from current payment readiness.
- Verify deductions. Check rent, management charges and restoration obligations and evidence, with the long-term repair reserve recorded separately.
- Reconcile current orders and notices. Check covered claim scope, actual arrival, transfer finality, bank rights and secured-debt maturity; remove duplication and account for releases.
- Enter verified protection and request facts. Use a case-confirmed protected amount and distinguish distribution-demand service from each legally relevant deposit request.
- Save amounts together with review reasons. Check the recipient’s authority and account before turning a candidate into an actual transfer, and resolve missing facts with the court or counsel.
- Retain completion evidence. Keep payment receipts, deposit and payment records, the execution-court report of reasons for deposit, the tenant’s settlement breakdown and handover confirmation.
Supreme Court case 2002Da52657, decided 2002-12-10, distinguishes lease-secured deductions from a special restoration-security agreement.
A restoration quotation should not automatically be deducted when the landlord does not intend to restore and will reuse the tenant-installed facilities.
Family members helping with the refund should reconcile documentary records rather than rely solely on amounts remembered from calls.
Interpretation limits and checks before relying on a result
- Unconfirmed protection, deductions, refund timing or handover differ from a confirmed zero.
A withheld amount does not mean the debt no longer needs to be paid.
- Tax-collection attachments, commercial leases, mixed-deposit document drafting, release-security deposits and litigation over final creditor priority are outside this calculator’s scope.
- The checked automatic-decision window runs from 2026-07-01 through 2026-12-31.
Earlier dates and other years withhold automatic payment confirmation and require an applicable-law and transitional-provision check.
- Competition arithmetic assumes that the entered scopes affect the same refund claim.
Different claims, a completed full assignment, conversion, release or cancellation may require case-specific interpretation first.
- An intended deposit date does not establish the end of delay damages.
Check legal effectiveness, actual payment, required principal and interest, scope and handover conditions.
Before depositing, confirm the legal ground, named beneficiary, jurisdiction and supporting documents.
After an execution deposit, check the report of reasons required by Civil Execution Act Article 248(4).
A separate deposit-cost or interest estimate does not certify that the proposed deposit is legally effective.
Frequently asked questions
Must the landlord pay the entire refund to an attaching creditor?
First check the covered amount, collection authority, protected part and other rights; attachment alone is different from confirmed collection authority.
Can I simply pay the provisional-attaching creditor?
Provisional attachment alone does not establish direct collection authority; the result instead reviews the Article 291 and Article 248(1) deposit route.
Is a transfer order valid whenever the total fits within S?
Check finality and other attachments, provisional attachments or distribution demands existing by service under Article 229(5); the amount comparison alone is insufficient.
Does competition always make deposit mandatory?
The relevant creditor-request condition under Article 248(3) matters; Article 248(2) separately concerns a served distribution demand and the participating creditor’s request.
Does a Seoul deposit of KRW 100,000,000 automatically protect KRW 55,000,000?
The regional figure is a reference limit; enter the case-confirmed amount after checking home value, several tenants, timing, possession and registration requirements and court scope changes.
Do bank and attaching-creditor priority depend only on the certified date?
Compare arrival of a valid certified-date notice or the relevant consent time; same-day sequence without proof and disputed effectiveness require review.
Is the repair-reserve reimbursement added to the attached deposit?
The tool keeps it as a separate tenant settlement; whether an order reaches another settlement claim depends on its schedule and the actual legal relationship.
Does the displayed deposit-review amount stop delay interest that day?
No date or estimated amount alone establishes that effect; check a valid deposit, actual payment, required principal and interest, covered scope, handover and the execution-court report.
Official Korean sources and verification date
Checked 2026-11-07 through the National Law Information OPEN API, including current statutes, the relevant articles and the actual case-number records.
The texts used are the Civil Execution Act effective 2026-02-01, Civil Act effective 2026-03-17, Housing Lease Protection Act effective 2026-01-02 and its Enforcement Decree effective 2026-07-01.
Recheck amendments and transitional provisions, protected scope and the actual orders, notices, finality and deposit requests when using the result.
Prepare the allocation and evidence before the refund date
Enter verified amounts and currently effective records above, then resolve the result’s review reasons first.
If court deposit is appropriate, use the court-deposit cost and interest calculator for a separate cost scenario.
Confirm deposit grounds and documents with the deposit officer and execution court, and keep receipts and settlement records after completion.
Discuss the actual handover date, supported deductions, proposed direct payments and reasons for deposit or review with the tenant.
The allocation record helps family members and advisers review the same facts together.