Presentation of cases and questions
I have a commercial lease agreement with a term from August 1, 2023, to July 31, 2025. June 30, 2025, passed without either the landlord or the tenant mentioning renewal. Can the tenant notify the landlord on July 30, 2025, the day before the lease expires, that the lease will not be renewed? The answer is yes. Don't be discouraged if the answer differs from yours, as the South Korean High Court ruled in the same vein.

Permanent Law-Related Provisions and Plausible Misunderstandings
Article 10, Paragraph 4 of the Act on the Restrictions on Leasehold and Tenancy stipulates, "If the lessor fails to notify the lessee of a refusal to renew or a change in terms between six months and one month prior to the expiration of the lease term, the lease shall be deemed renewed upon expiration under the same terms and conditions as the previous lease. In this case, the lease term shall be deemed one year." Article 10, Paragraph 5 of the same Act stipulates, "In the case of Paragraph 4, the lessee may notify the lessor of termination of the contract at any time, and the termination shall take effect three months after the lessor receives such notification." Many readers, upon reading this provision, will likely picture the following scenario.
The landlord didn't give any notice from six months to one month before the expiration date. Oh, so the contract was implicitly renewed? The contract term was extended by one year under the same terms as before.
Now, under Article 10, Paragraph 5 of the Residential Tenancy Act, tenants can "terminate their lease at any time," but "termination takes effect three months after the landlord receives the notice." At first glance, this scenario seems logical and reasonable. However, considering the differences between the relevant provisions of the Housing Lease Protection Act and the Residential Tenancy Act, this scenario overlooks the important rights granted to tenants under the Residential Tenancy Act and thus requires revision.

The Supreme Court stated, “There is no limit to the notice period for a commercial tenant to refuse to renew a lease.”
On June 27, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in case 2023da307024 as follows:
Article 10, Paragraph 4 (Implicit Renewal Provisions) of the Commercial Building Lease Protection Act applies if the landlord fails to notify the tenant of a refusal to renew or a change in terms between six months and one month prior to the expiration of the lease. This provision only limits the landlord's notice period and does not explicitly limit the tenant's notice period for refusing renewal. Therefore, if a commercial tenant provides notice of refusal to renew between one month prior to the expiration of the lease and the expiration date, the lease agreement is deemed to be terminated on the expiration date, not implicitly renewing.
The Supreme Court ruled as above, noting that the Standing Act does not contain a provision similar to the proviso of Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Housing Lease Protection Act (implicit renewal is recognized even if the tenant does not notify of refusal of renewal two months prior to the end of the lease term).

Application of Supreme Court rulings to cases
Let's return to the case presented at the beginning of this article and apply the Supreme Court ruling. There's a commercial lease agreement with a term from August 1, 2023, to July 31, 2025. June 30, 2025, passed without either the landlord or the tenant mentioning renewal. Can the tenant notify the landlord on July 30, 2025, the day before the lease expires, that he or she will not renew the lease?
Applying the Supreme Court precedent to this case, the tenant can notify the landlord of their refusal to renew the lease on July 30, 2025, the day before the lease expires, and claim the lease will end on July 31, 2025. However, if August 1, 2025, arrives without any notification from the tenant, the implicitly renewed contract will have come into effect, so the tenant's termination notice will only take effect three months after the landlord receives this notice.

Readers who have read the conclusions to the above case may have the following questions: "A tenant can refuse to renew a lease the day before the end of the lease, but can it also be refused on the day of the end of the lease?", "What is the relationship between this and the tenant's obligation to restore the property to its original condition?", "What about the tenant's key money?" If you have any of these questions, please contact the author.