I think I'm a victim of jeonse fraud — the building is going to auction and my landlord has disappeared. I'm a foreigner with 200 million won at stake. What can I do?

Where you stand in the auction depends on one date: whether your possession, address registration and fixed-date stamp were in place before the mortgage was registered. If they were, you rank ahead of the bank for your deposit; if the mortgage came first, you rank behind it, and what you recover depends on what is left — which is where the special tenant protections and the criminal case come in. Both apply to foreign tenants. You are not an idiot; you did the things the system tells tenants to do. The next steps are to fix your position in the auction, then pursue the money everywhere else it can be found.

What this is under Korean law

The Housing Lease Protection Act (주택임대차보호법, jutaek imdaecha boho-beop) gives a tenant who has moved in and registered their address (전입신고, jeonip singo) opposability against later purchasers, and a tenant who also has a fixed-date stamp (확정일자, hwakjeong ilja) a priority right to be paid from the auction proceeds in order of date against mortgages and other secured creditors. Your registration as a foreign resident at the address counts for this purpose. Separately, for deposits below a regional threshold, a portion is paid first regardless of date as a small-deposit priority; a 200 million won deposit in Seoul is above the current threshold, so this does not help you, but check the figure for your district.

If the landlord took deposits from multiple tenants in multiple buildings while knowing the properties could not cover them, that is fraud (사기, sagi) under Article 347 of the Criminal Act and, for aggregate losses of this scale, the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (특정경제범죄법). The agent who arranged the lease may have liability under the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act if they failed in disclosure duties, and their mandatory professional insurance is a separate source of recovery.

The auction

Check the auction record immediately: the registered encumbrances on the property and their dates, your own dates, and the appraised value. That comparison tells you your rank and your likely recovery. You must file a demand for distribution (배당요구, baedang yogu) with the auction court by the deadline it sets, or you will not be paid from the proceeds even with priority. Foreign tenants miss this deadline because the notice is in Korean; it is the single most important date in your case.

If you rank behind the mortgage and the proceeds will not reach you, two protections matter. A tenant with opposability can, in some circumstances, remain in the property against the buyer until the deposit is paid; and a tenant can bid at the auction, with the deposit credited, which has become a common route for jeonse victims who would otherwise lose everything.

Special protections for fraud victims

Korea enacted a special act for jeonse fraud victims (전세사기피해자 지원 및 주거안정에 관한 특별법) providing, for recognized victims, preferential purchase rights at auction, deferral of the auction, low-interest financing, and other measures. Recognition is by application to the Ministry of Land and a committee; nationality is not a bar, and foreign tenants have been recognized. The criteria and benefits have been amended more than once, so the current terms should be checked, but an application is worth making early because some measures depend on timing relative to the auction.

The criminal case

A criminal complaint (고소, goso) against the landlord and, where warranted, the agent serves two purposes beyond punishment. The police investigation traces where the deposits went — money the landlord moved is what a civil claim and a provisional attachment (가압류, gaapnyu) go after — and a prosecution creates a record that supports victim-status recognition. Complaints from multiple tenants of the same landlord are consolidated and handled with more resources. Our firm files the complaint and handles communication with the police; you do not go to the station alone.

Your situation as a foreign national

Nothing in your visa status affects your rights as a tenant, your standing in the auction, or your eligibility for victim support. The practical risk is the language — deadlines, distribution demands, and committee applications are all in Korean — and the timeline if you leave Korea before the auction concludes. A power of attorney (위임장, wiimjang) to counsel covers both.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not move out and deregister your address; your priority depends on remaining. Do not sign anything from the landlord or agent offering "partial settlement." Do: pull the property register and the auction record this week; confirm your three dates; calendar the distribution-demand deadline; contact the other tenants and coordinate; file the victim-status application and the criminal complaint in parallel.

Practical insight

Jeonse victims lose in three places: a missed distribution demand, a deregistered address, and a landlord's assets that were attachable in month one and gone by month six. Join the other tenants for the criminal complaint and the victim application, where numbers help; keep your own counsel for the auction, where your dates are yours alone and nobody else's deadline is the same as yours.

Send us your lease, your registration and stamp dates, and the auction notice, and we can tell you your rank and the deadline within a day — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Civil Litigation Team