Do not compare a monthly retainer with salary alone
Korea-specific 2026 planning tool
This English page applies the Republic of Korea Fire Prevention and Safety Management Act and uses KRW.
It is a budgeting screen, not a determination of a property grade, required staffing, lawful outsourcing, concurrent appointment, management authority, safety compliance, contract validity, or an official service fee.
A fire-safety management outsourcing proposal often invites a quick comparison between the monthly retainer and an employee salary.
That comparison omits the legal and operating structure.
Under Articles 24 and 25 of the current Korean Act, an eligible property that delegates permitted work must still appoint a person who can supervise the registered management business.
The appointed supervisor monitors delegated work and directly performs all non-delegated fire-safety duties.
The outsourced alternative therefore includes visit extras, internal supervisor time, added support, transition cost, and an expected contract gap.
The in-house alternative uses loaded employment cost rather than salary alone and adds education, equipment, relief coverage, recruitment, and expected vacancy cost.
This calculator places both alternatives on the same analysis horizon and discount basis to report nominal TCO, present-value TCO, equivalent monthly cost, and a break-even monthly retainer.
What outsourcing means under the current Korean rules
The legal sources were checked through the Korean National Law Information OPEN API on August 13, 2026.
The Act is law ID 014189, MST 283705, effective February 27, 2026.
The Enforcement Decree is ID 014353, MST 287389, and the Enforcement Rule is ID 014356, MST 287849, both effective July 1, 2026.
Korean fire-safety management outsourcing class and scope screen for 2026| Class or scope | Preliminary legal screen | Key threshold |
|---|
| Grades 2 and 3 | Listed in Enforcement Decree Article 28(1) | Grade must be confirmed |
| Limited Grade 1 class | Attached Table 4 item 2(a)(3), with apartments and large properties excluded | Area < 15,000 m² and floors ≥ 11 |
| Special and other Grade 1 | Outside the Article 28 outsourcing class list | No automated approval |
| Delegable statutory work | Egress and fire-compartment facilities, plus fire-protection systems and related facilities | 2 duty groups |
Eleven above-ground floors do not make every Grade 1 property eligible.
The property must fall within the exact Attached Table 4 item named by Article 28, must not be an apartment, and must have gross floor area below 15,000 m².
The calculator checks the selected numbers but never determines the statutory grade or the exact Attached Table item.
Delegated work versus duties that remain with the supervisor
Work a registered business may perform
- Management of egress facilities, fire compartments, and fire-prevention facilities.
- Management of fire-protection systems and other fire-related facilities.
- Performance under the staffing, qualification, and method rules in Enforcement Rule Attached Table 1.
Work retained by the appointed supervisor
- Fire-safety planning and supervision of delegated work.
- Self-defence fire brigade and initial-response organisation, operation, and education.
- Drills, education, hot-work supervision, records, and initial fire response.
A contract can include planning or drill support, but support is not the same as transferring statutory responsibility.
Enter loaded internal time for reviewing visits, correcting deficiencies, maintaining plans and records, organising training, and preparing emergency response.
Also verify that the counterparty is a fire-facility management business registered under Article 29 of the Fire-Fighting System Installation and Management Act, rather than a general facility-service vendor alone.
Confirm assistants, concurrent roles, and management authorities first
Assistant fire-safety managers
Act Article 24(1) and Decree Article 25 require additional assistants for properties covered by Attached Table 5.
Outsourcing does not automatically remove that obligation, so the same authority-confirmed count and loaded annual cost appear in both alternatives.
Other safety roles at Special and Grade 1 properties
Act Article 24(2) and Decree Article 26 identify Special and Grade 1 properties as full-duty properties for the restriction involving another electrical, gas, hazardous-material, or similar safety-manager role.
If the same person is planned for another safety appointment, confirm any applicable exception and the actual appointment route before using the cost result.
Separated management authority
Act Article 35 and Decree Article 34 can require authority-specific appointments and a general fire-safety manager where ownership, management, or possession authority is separated in a covered property.
Entering more than one management authority keeps the cost calculation visible but blocks a final action status until actual staffing is confirmed.
Build a like-for-like input set
Outsourced proposal checks
- Whether VAT and the contracted annual visit count are included.
- Night, holiday, emergency, repeat-visit, and extra-inspection pricing.
- The precise facility-management duties included in the retainer.
- Planning, drill, and record support and the stated responsibility boundary.
- Termination, handover, replacement staffing, and renewal terms.
In-house budget checks
- Loaded compensation including employer burden, retirement, and benefits.
- Course fees and loaded labour time spent in education.
- Equipment, supplies, and record or inspection systems.
- Relief coverage for leave or illness and recruitment-gap planning.
- Appointment filing, posting, initial education, and handover cost.
If the outsourced quote is entered as a VAT-inclusive cash outflow, use a comparable cash-outflow basis for the in-house alternative.
If recoverable input VAT is excluded from economic cost, normalise every external proposal to supply value under one documented accounting basis.
The calculator does not determine invoice eligibility or VAT recovery.
Formula and break-even interpretation
First-year outsourced recurring cost
monthly fee × 12 + visits × extra cost per visit + supervisor loaded cost + additional support + expected contract-gap days × daily gap cost + assistant annual cost
First-year in-house recurring cost
manager count × loaded cost per manager + education + equipment + relief + other cost + expected vacancy days × daily gap cost + assistant annual cost
Present value and monthly break-even
Each recurring stream grows by its selected annual escalation and is discounted at the selected annual rate, while setup cost is treated as time-zero cash flow.
The break-even monthly fee solves for the outsourced retainer that makes outsourced PV TCO equal in-house PV TCO while every other input remains fixed.
Enforcement Rule Article 13 names the cost-plus-fixed-fee engineering method, so this internal break-even result is neither a statutory ceiling nor a market fair-price opinion.
How to use the calculator
- Prepare the building record and current appointment certificate, then enter property type, area, floors, occupants, households, and management-authority count.
- Enter the grade and assistant count confirmed with the competent fire station or a qualified Korean professional.
- Confirm the Article 28 class, provider registration, staffing, jurisdiction, and actual contract scope before marking outsourcing eligible.
- Enter the actual retainer, visit extras, supervisor time, added support, transition cost, and expected contract gap.
- Enter confirmed in-house manager staffing, loaded employment cost, education, equipment, relief, setup, and expected vacancy.
- Read the legal-gate warnings first, then compare PV TCO, equivalent monthly cost, and the break-even monthly fee.
Worked three-year example with no discounting
Assume one non-residential Grade 2 property with one management authority, one confirmed assistant, and confirmed outsourcing eligibility.
Use KRW 12,000,000 annual loaded cost for the assistant, KRW 200,000 per gap day, and zero discount and escalation.
The outsourced alternative uses a KRW 500,000 monthly fee, 12 visits, KRW 50,000 per visit, KRW 2,600,000 supervisor time, KRW 400,000 added support, two gap days, and KRW 1,000,000 setup.
The in-house alternative uses KRW 36,000,000 loaded manager cost, KRW 1,000,000 education, KRW 1,000,000 equipment, KRW 2,000,000 relief, five vacancy days, and KRW 4,000,000 setup.
Three-year no-discount example for outsourced and in-house fire-safety management| Metric | Outsourced | In-house |
|---|
| First-year recurring cost | KRW 22,000,000 | KRW 53,000,000 |
| Three-year nominal and PV TCO | KRW 67,000,000 | KRW 163,000,000 |
| Present-value saving | KRW 96,000,000 | — |
| PV break-even monthly fee | KRW 3,166,666.67 | — |
Outsourcing is lower in this worked vector, but every amount is fictional and exists to verify the model.
A real decision still depends on provider registration, lawful property and duty scope, supervisor position and time, assistant staffing, emergency response, and contract terms.
Appointment, filing, and education timeline
- Enforcement Rule Article 14 generally requires appointment within 30 days of the applicable use approval, grade change, acquisition, dismissal or retirement, or outsourcing-contract termination event.
- Act Article 26 requires filing with the competent fire headquarters or fire station within 14 days after appointment and posting the prescribed information.
- A person appointed under Act Article 24(3) to supervise outsourced work must complete the Article 34 education within three months after appointment.
- For outsourced work, Enforcement Rule Article 14(5) calls for evidence of a position capable of supervision and a copy of the outsourcing contract.
- Assistant appointments have their own Article 16 appointment, filing, and supporting-document process.
Frequently asked questions
Does an outsourcing contract eliminate the appointment duty?
No.
An eligible outsourced property still appoints a person who can supervise the management business, and that person directly performs all non-delegated duties.
Can every Grade 1 property outsource the work?
No.
The current Decree lists only the specific Attached Table 4 item 2(a)(3) class after excluding apartments and properties with at least 15,000 m² gross floor area.
Competent-authority confirmation remains necessary.
Can the vendor take full responsibility for plans and drills?
The two statutory delegable groups cover egress, fire-compartment, and fire-prevention facility management and fire-protection system management.
Contract support for other tasks does not remove the appointed supervisor duty to supervise and directly perform non-delegated work.
Why is assistant cost included in both alternatives?
A property covered by Attached Table 5 may require assistants regardless of outsourcing.
The calculator therefore includes the same authority-confirmed count and annual loaded cost in both alternatives.
Is the break-even monthly fee an official fair price?
No.
It is an internal negotiation line that equalises the two present values while other inputs stay fixed.
Review the actual cost-plus-fixed-fee basis, staffing, scope, and proposal separately.
Official sources and update boundary
- Fire Prevention and Safety Management Act Articles 24, 25, 26, 34, and 35.
- Enforcement Decree of the Fire Prevention and Safety Management Act Articles 25, 26, 28, and 34, plus Attached Tables 4 and 5.
- Enforcement Rule of the Fire Prevention and Safety Management Act Articles 12, 13, 14, and 16.
- Fire-Fighting System Installation and Management Act Article 29 management-business registration.
Sources were checked on August 13, 2026.
Recheck the current provisions, Attached Tables 4 and 5, property use and systems, occupant rules, management authorities, and competent fire-station guidance before appointment or contracting.
Replace every example with confirmed inputs
Confirm grade, assistants, outsourcing class, provider registration, and management authority first.
Then normalise the proposal scope and VAT basis against loaded in-house cost, preserve the warning record, and use the result for competent-authority review, vendor comparison, and internal budgeting.