Good Morning,

I am a former ROK translator soldier who served in JSA (Camp Bonifas). Throughout my military and after, I was interested in USFK issues, and got to know this forum. I hope to be able to answer some questions that I might be able to help with, and I would like to receive assistance on some of my issues (primarily renting property to USFK).

I have a question. This is what my realtor is claiming what's happening. My friend (Korean) is renting his apartment to a USFK serviceman, and their lease started in November 2007. My friend did not get paid until January, when it was direct deposited to his bank account. When raising question about rent for November, December, and February, the realtor said the lessee was in the process of getting the money reimbursed from the unit, and told us to wait. (Some sort of OHA reimbursement for the beginning months?) But, when my friend directly asked the lessee, he said he's paying for November and December out of his pocket, and all rent from January is coming out of his OHA.


When asked about February rent, this is by far the most non-sense answer my realtor gave me. He said starting from February, US Army (I am not sure which branch of service the lessee is, but I'm assuming he is in Army) is paying the OHA directly to the servicemen! So my lessee now needs to get paid his OHA to HIS bank account, withdraw $300 everyday (ATM limit), and bring it to the realtor. At the time my friend could not raise any question, returned home, and now waited for a month. The realtor said all reimbursement would be done by end of Feb. Now it's March and still no money seen by my friend.


I am not sure who I should believe now - whether the realtor's claim is true or if my friend is getting scammed by this realtor. If there was this big of a regulation change (OHA paid to lessees rather than landlords), I think it would've been a big issue among all renters in ROK.

Could some of the active servicemen here on the forum help me and my friend by telling us which is true? I sincerely appreciate all of your time for reading this and helping me, in advance.



paid? explanation given by realtor

NOVEMBER -- NO Lessor needs to be reimbursed from the
unit finance office first. Since the landlord
is bugging the realtor so much, the lessor
DECEMBER -- NO is taking $300 out from his ATM first
(before reimburesement) and bringing it
to the realtor everyday.


JANUARY -- YES (directly from the finance office to landlord's bank)


FEBRUARY -- NO Landlord needs to wait because now the
OHA regulation has changed. Now OHA
will be paid directly to the lessor, not
to the landlord because of some sort of
fraud in other units. So now all
servicemen needs to withdraw money
from their bank account, and pay the
landlord (either directly or through realtor)

Correct, all rent payments to the landlord/realtor have been stopped because of all the screw ups that have been happening. Not getting the OHA statrted on time is another problem that he needs to address with his post finance. If they are not helping hihm they can always do an ICE comment.

If you have a credit union on post or a bank, you can do a 1 time withdrawl (Cash Advance) and pay the rent like that, instead of getting all the ATM fees.

If your not getting the help, like I said before or the answers you need to go to the housing office or finance. BE SURE TO LET EVEYONE KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON in his Chain of Command.

__________________
CH-47 SI

They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

I don't know exactly where you are located, but you need to get your apartment owner directly in contact with the housing office that services your area. You can call the nearest Base or Post and get a number of the "Housing Office". You may want to arrange for an official meeting of the two, with no realtor necessarily involved. Normally an approved contract should be signed and on file at the housing office. Sounds like the realtor could be complicating things, or maybe just not able to fix the problem.

I just heard about this a couple of days ago. My friend's lease ran out in February and she told me they stopped doing the automatics payments. I thought she meant no new ones. Are they stopping all payments even if the lease isn't up?

__________________
There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled.

My husband got a paper at work saying that if you set up an allotment to community bank then community bank will pay your house owner directly. They did say to make sure that you allow for the rate exchange.

Finance told DH in more words than this...that basically it was a huge hassle for them to do. So, someone searched the regs and found that they didn't have to offer direct payment for the soldiers. Since it was a lot of work for them they decided they didn't want to do it anymore. I'm not sure who down there told him but that was straight from one of the horse's mouths.


Edited to say: For anyone banking at a credit union..Osan's credit union is a service center. Your credit union might be on their list of partners. If so, you can go to Osan and make withdrawals just like you would at your own credit union.

__________________
Have a Blessed Day!

Michelle

I've not heard of this happening anywhere else, other than Humphreys.

Any other Posts or Bases affected?

Thank you everyone for the answers.

One question - is it easier for you guys to issue personal checks to landlords than setting up all the direct deposits and et cetera? I have a business and I frequently cash US checks drawn by USFJ (US Forces Japan) servicemen, all it takes is some W20,000 charge for cashing, and about three weeks to clear. Maybe this is an easier way if landlord knew how to cash checks??

Hey everyone. We are set to arrive at the Hump in mid May. We received our pinpoint orders last week. I will be coming with the children (5 & 6 ) UCS. Just want to confirm that we will be recieving OHA with dependants COLA single rate and the utilities is a flat rate. When did it change that OHA is being paid direclty to the service member. Is this because realtors are cheating the soldiers.

Great info on this site.

This is what we were told:

We signed our lease in July and for now the OHA gets paid directly to the landlord. We had to pay out of pocket for the first two months and then the OHA started. If you already had a lease, which it sounds like this person did, then the landlord should be getting paid directly. Once he renews the lease then the lessee would be paying the landlord.

I would suggest that your friend contact the housing office and talk to the lessee. It is very hard to understand how everything works. I'm very happy that they are/have changed it!

Ok now those who arrive like 3 months from now will we have to pay the landlords ourselves? So if our OHA is 1600 and we find a place to rent for 1300 finance gives us 1300 and the other 300 is just discarded? Am I making this to hard?