Rent Problems

I’ve been living in Korea for about four years now, and during that time I’ve changed places three times. Each place came with its own surprises, cultural shocks, and lessons about how renting agreements work here.

Problem 1
In my first apartment, everything seemed fine at the beginning. I paid my rent on time every month, even when I traveled. I was careful and responsible, and honestly, I thought I was the perfect tenant. But the real trouble started when it was time to move out. The landlord didn’t come to do a final inspection and he said he was out of town. After I left, he called me on the phone and listed all kinds of “damages” to the apartment, blaming me for things I hadn’t done. He even threatened not to return my security deposit at all, saying I didn’t take good care of the place.
❓What “damages” do you think he mentioned?

After weeks of back-and-forth arguments, I finally got some of my deposit back—but only 50%.

Problem 2
When I moved into my second apartment, I already had a bad impression of the landlady. I was late for signing the contract, and she looked pretty annoyed. Anyway, I decided to stay there.

But one day, my air conditioner stopped cooling properly and even started shutting off automatically. I told the landlady about it, but she immediately said it was my fault and that I should pay for the repair costs. What in the world!

When the maintenance guy came, he checked everything and found out the problem was actually in the external unit on the roof. The repair was almost 200 dollars, and I was even ready to pay just to avoid more hassle.
❓Do you think I should pay for it?

But then the technician stopped me and said, “This isn’t your responsibility” in Korean. He even called the landlady himself and accused her of being irresponsible with her tenants. He warned her that if she refused to pay, he’d take legal action. I didn’t spend a single cent … yey!