Winter plumbing trouble: who to call first — landlord, management office, waterworks or plumber

Check one: is it only you?

Ask a neighbour, look at the elevator notice board, or check the building group chat if there is one. If the whole building is dry, your own pipes are almost certainly fine and nobody should be sent into your unit yet. If it is only your home, the problem is on your side of the meter or in the meter itself.

Check two: what does the meter look like?

Open the meter box (계량기함) — a small door in the apartment corridor, or a box in a villa stairwell or at ground level by the entrance. A dial that is white with frost, glass that is cracked, or water collecting in the box means the meter is the problem. A clear dial that does not move when you open a tap means ice somewhere between the meter and your taps. Our frozen water meter guide covers the first case in detail.

The short list: symptom → who goes first

• Whole building dry, no notice posted → the management office (관리사무소) or, in a villa without one, the landlord. If the street is out too, it is a city supply issue: 120 in Seoul, or the waterworks number on your bill elsewhere.
• Only your unit, meter frosted or cracked → the local waterworks office, because the meter is their equipment. Tell your landlord at the same time.
• Only your unit, meter looks normal, some or all taps dead → a frozen pipe on the private side. Message the landlord with photos, then a plumber.
• Taps work but no heating or hot water, and the boiler panel shows a code → the boiler maker's service line (AS). Our no hot water guide walks through the panel.
• You smell gas → none of the above. Do not switch lights or appliances on or off, open the windows, leave the unit, and call your city gas company's emergency line or 119 from outside.
• Water on the floor or dripping into the unit below → close the main valve first, then landlord, management office and the downstairs neighbour, then a plumber. The leak-below guide has the order.
• Washing machine water backing up on the veranda → stop laundry and read the frozen veranda drain guide. If neighbours' water is coming up in your drain too, it is the building's shared pipe and the management office goes first.

Renters: the order that protects you

Photograph, then message, then book. The photos are the meter box with the dial in frame, the tap that is dry with the handle open, and anything wet. The message goes to the landlord in writing — a text or KakaoTalk, not only a phone call — so the time and your description are on record. The only exception is water you cannot stop: close the valve and get help first, then send the message. Our who pays guide explains why the record matters when the bill arrives.

Korean messages you can copy

To the landlord (frozen pipe, meter looks fine):

안녕하세요, (○○호) 세입자입니다. 오늘 아침부터 집 안 수도가 안 나옵니다.
수도계량기는 정상으로 보이고, 배관이 언 것 같습니다.
사진 보내드립니다. 수리 기사를 불러도 될지 알려 주세요.

To the management office (checking for a building-wide outage):

(○동 ○호)입니다. 오늘 아침부터 수도가 안 나옵니다.
건물 전체 단수인지, 공용 배관 문제인지 확인 부탁드립니다.

To the waterworks (cracked or frozen meter):

수도계량기가 얼어서 깨진 것 같습니다. 동파 신고하려고 합니다.
주소는 (○○구 ○○동 ○○)입니다.

What the plumber's part actually is

Everything after the meter: the pipes through the walls and along the veranda, the valves, the taps, the washing machine and boiler connections, and the drains. In winter that means thawing frozen sections without damaging them, finding where a thawed pipe has split, and replacing the part that cracked. It does not include the meter itself, the city main, the boiler's insides or anything on the gas line.

Questions from a cold morning

My landlord has not replied and nothing comes out of the taps. Can I call a plumber anyway?

If water is moving where it should not — spraying, dripping through a ceiling — stop it at the valve and get help without waiting; a written message to the landlord saying what you did and why is enough to show you acted reasonably. If the taps are simply dry and nothing is leaking, give the landlord a few hours and send a second message with photos before booking. A frozen pipe that is not leaking rarely gets worse in that time, and the paper trail keeps the who-pays conversation simple later.

Does the waterworks line speak English?

In Seoul, the 120 Dasan call center offers an English option and can connect you to the right waterworks office. Outside Seoul, each city runs its own waterworks; the number is printed on your water bill (수도요금 고지서), and many city call centers also offer interpretation. If you are stuck, a Korean friend or your landlord can make the call with the Korean line on this page.

Everything is frozen and the building is old. Is this the landlord's problem or mine?

Usually the building and its pipes are the landlord's, and normal winter freezing in a poorly insulated building is not your fault. Where it gets argued is when a unit was left unheated for days, or a window was left open over a cold-wave night. That is why the order matters: photos first, a written message second, and the boiler on away mode (외출) whenever you leave. The details are in our who-pays guide.

Not sure whose job it is? Send the meter and the tap

Text us two photos — the meter box with the dial showing, and the dry tap — plus your building type and floor, and we reply with who to call first. If it turns out to be ours, we confirm the price on site before work starts. English by text (SMS) works best. Phone calls are fine in Korean or Japanese.