As of November 2026, a fixed date stamp (확정일자, hwakjeong ilja) on a Korean housing lease costs ₩600 per contract at a community service center or registry office and ₩500 through the Supreme Court's Internet Registry Office (iros.go.kr). If your lease must be reported under the jeonse/wolse reporting rule, the fixed date is granted with the report at no charge (Jongno-gu new resident guide). The catch is timing: online applications are accepted around the clock, but those received after 4 p.m. on a weekday may be dated the next working day, and those received after 6 p.m., on Saturdays or on public holidays are dated the next working day (Supreme Court Rule, Article 8).
This guide is for tenants renting a home in Korea, including foreign residents, who want to understand what the stamp does and how to get it without losing a day. I compared the Ministry of Government Legislation's public legal guide, a district office's move-in guide and the text of the Supreme Court rule.
What a fixed date does for a tenant in Korea
Korean tenant protection rests on two separate layers under the Housing Lease Protection Act. The first is opposability (대항력). Once you take possession of the home and file your move-in report (전입신고), you can assert your lease against a new owner from 00:00 the following day (Easylaw: opposability and priority). The government's own example: a move-in report filed on 15 December gives opposability from 00:00 on 16 December.
The second layer is the preferential repayment right (우선변제권). If the property is sold at a court auction or public sale, this right lets you be repaid your deposit ahead of junior creditors. It requires both the opposability requirements (possession plus move-in report) and a fixed date on the lease contract (Article 3-2(2) of the Act). A move-in report does not add a fixed date by itself, which is why you need both steps.
Legally, the fixed date proves that your contract existed on that day. The public legal guide explains that it exists to stop a landlord and tenant from changing the deposit after the fact or backdating a contract. That is exactly why the date matters so much: it helps fix your place in line.
The move-in report itself is due within 14 days of moving, and missing it without good reason can bring a fine of up to ₩50,000 (Easylaw: move-in report). For a tenant with a deposit at stake, though, that 14-day window is only the penalty line. The government guide recommends filing the move-in report and getting the fixed date on moving day.
Three ways to get the stamp and what each costs
The Act lists who may grant a fixed date: the local eup or myeon office, the dong community service center or city/county/district branch office where the home is located, district courts and their branches, registry offices, and notaries (Article 3-6(1)). In practice, tenants usually use one of three routes.
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| Route | What you bring | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| In person (community center or registry office) | Original contract and ID | ₩600 per contract | Stamped on the spot |
| Internet Registry Office (iros.go.kr) | Scanned contract, digital certificate | ₩500 | Accepted 24/7, granted on working-hour rules |
| With a lease report | Report form and contract | Free | For leases that must be reported |
In person, you show the original contract and an ID such as a resident registration card, driver's license, passport or alien registration card. The fee is ₩600, plus ₩100 for every four pages beyond the first four, so a typical two- or three-page lease costs ₩600.
Online, you sign in to the Internet Registry Office with a joint (public) certificate or financial certificate and request an electronic fixed date for ₩500, according to the Jongno-gu guide.
If your deposit exceeds ₩60 million or your monthly rent exceeds ₩300,000, the lease must be reported within 30 days of signing. Filing that report on the Real Estate Transaction Management System grants the fixed date automatically at no cost, and the fee is also waived when you file the report and request the fixed date together at a dong community center. The report can be filed before your move-in report.
Leases signed through the Ministry of Land's electronic contract system are also exempt, as are basic livelihood security recipients, registered national merit and independence merit recipients (and eligible survivors), single-parent family support recipients and several other listed groups. Separately, requesting lease information from the same office costs ₩600 per request, plus ₩50 per page beyond 10 printed pages.
The online 4 p.m. cutoff
"Available 24 hours" describes when you can submit, not when your stamp is dated. Under Article 8 of the Supreme Court rule on fixed dates:
- Applications received during weekday working hours are, barring special circumstances, granted the same day.
- Applications received after 4 p.m. on a weekday may be granted on the next working day, and the office must warn you that same-day processing may not happen.
- Applications received after 6 p.m. on a weekday, on a Saturday or on a public holiday are granted on the next working day.
So if you finish moving at 7 p.m. on a Friday and apply online that evening, your fixed date will carry Monday's date, or later if a holiday follows. If the landlord registers a new mortgage in that gap, your repayment priority could fall behind it. Saving ₩100 is not worth losing a day.
My suggestion is to treat the online route as a way to get the stamp early: upload the contract on a weekday daytime after signing or a few days before the balance payment. If everything has to happen late on moving day, visit the community center during its opening hours and handle both the move-in report and the stamp at one counter.
Six things the clerk checks on your contract
Article 3 of the fixed date rule sets out six conditions:
- It is a completed document showing both parties' details, the property, the lease term, and the rent and deposit.
- It bears the signature or name and seal of the parties (or their agent).
- Any blank gaps in the text are struck through with a line to show nothing is missing.
- Corrections show the number of characters changed in the margin, signed or sealed by the parties.
- A paper contract with two or more pages has a seal across the page joins (간인).
- It has not already received a fixed date, unless new terms were added to it for a renewal.
The first point matters most. The public guide warns that a receipt that does not state the home and the lease term gives no preferential repayment right even if it is stamped.
Accuracy matters for the move-in report too. The same guide advises checking the building register so the lot number and unit number match. Courts have refused protection where an apartment or multi-unit tenant left out the unit number or used the number on the door instead of the registered one.
Why the order of steps on moving day matters
According to the Supreme Court decision cited by the government guide, if you receive the fixed date on or before the day you take possession and file your move-in report, the preferential repayment right begins at 00:00 the next day. Getting the stamp early does not move that start any earlier, but getting it late pushes your reference point back. A practical moving-day sequence looks like this:
- Before paying the balance, pull a fresh copy of the property register to check mortgages and the exact unit number.
- Pay the balance and take possession.
- On the same day, file the move-in report and get the fixed date stamped on the original contract. If the lease must be reported, file the report then and skip the fee.
- Keep the stamped original safe and store a photo or scan.
After you have the stamp
The requirements must continue until the deadline for claiming distribution in any auction. If your whole household moves its resident registration elsewhere, even temporarily, opposability is lost and a later re-registration only creates new opposability from that point. If you lose the stamped contract, you can still claim priority if the issuing office's fixed date ledger proves the stamp (Article 3-6(3)).
Registering a jeonse right under the Civil Act is the other common option. It is recorded on the property register but needs the landlord's documents and costs more in taxes and fees, while a fixed date costs under ₩1,000. For most tenants, a move-in report plus a fixed date on the same day is the realistic first step.
