Korean Lease Agreement Documents
In Korea there are several types of lease agreements. Jeonse (전세) agreements, monthly rent or wolse (월세) agreements, and one-room agreements, to name a few. The composition and length of Korean lease agreements varies depending on whether it is a warehouse, storefront, apartment, or detached house.
Korean lease agreements usually set out the square footage, type of building materials used, and all of the amounts owed and when each amount is due. In Korea there is typically base rent and then management expenses on top of that. Management expenses will include cleaning, security guards, mail collection, and among other matters.
Translations of Korean lease documents are requested fairly often, however, there are few important things that should be considered when requesting this type of translation.
Japanese influence on the Korean legal system
The language in Korean lease agreements sometimes is confusing, even to Koreans. One unique aspect is that some words, phrases, and sentence structures are borrowed from Japanese. The reason is that during the time of Korea under Japanese rule (일제강점기), the Japanese language and culture had a heavy influence on the legal affairs in Korea. Much of this influence has gone away, but there are still traces of it that make certain phrases or provisions (조항) difficult to understand at first glance. Translating these phrases and provisions literally into English sometimes leave the reader baffled. Translators often get confused with the Japanese influence and just try to translate it literally. We have experience handling all such phrases and can instantly identify when these have been misunderstood or mistranslated.
We’ve noticed that, sometimes, Korean real estate agencies will use a pro forma version of a pre-existing lease agreement. In some cases, they will only change the company/client name. This means that there may be provisions that should have been changed, but which were not. Sometimes it can be time consuming to read an entire lease agreement, and even more so to write one.
Often there will be special conditions added into the agreement. These are typically specific to the situation or clients involved. These will hardly ever be things inserted from another template (서식/양식).
One feature of Korean lease agreements is that they often automatically extend. It is necessary to provide notice by a certain day and month to opt out of the renewal.
Many translation companies treat Korean lease agreements in the same way they treat the translation of a birth certificate. This means that your important business document may not get assigned to the expert that it needs. Whether you are providing the translation of your Korean lease agreement to an accountant, lawyer, or the government, or even if it is just for your internal reference, wouldn’t it be ideal if the English translation was accurate and easy to read? While Korean lease agreements may be viewed as a mere formality, we would pose that it is better to know exactly what you are agreeing to, or what type of agreement you will be extending.
A better approach to translating Korean lease agreements
If you have had your Korean lease agreement translated but you still have trouble understanding exactly what the English is saying, it may have been handled by someone inexperienced. The translators we pair up with Korean lease agreement translations have already gained the experience necessary to proficiently translate such documents. It is difficult to translate Korean lease agreements well, and this is probably why we receive so many requests to proofread translations of this type that were handled by other companies. Our translators will not be practicing or learning for the first time with your document. Even if questions do come up, they will be able to answer them thoroughly and to your satisfaction rather than just telling you, “that’s what is says in Korean.”