Information on landlords who have not returned dwelling lease deposits due to scams such as jeonse fraud will be shared through the Korea Credit Information Services.
According to the financial sector on Nov. 11, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) the previous day gave advance notice of a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Use and Protection of Credit Information (Credit Information Act) to this effect.
The amendment allows information on landlords who have not returned dwelling lease deposits to be shared with the comprehensive credit information concentration agency (Korea Credit Information Services) without the landlords' consent for the purpose of investigating and preventing financial fraud. Accordingly, related information from the three guarantee institutions—Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG), Seoul Guarantee Insurance Company, and Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF)—will be shared through the Korea Credit Information Services without landlords' consent.
If the bad bank for jeonse fraud that the government is currently pushing is established, it is expected that the status of landlords can be easily identified based on malicious landlord information accumulated by the Korea Credit Information Services. This is expected to reduce guarantee fraud.
Previously, when the three guarantee institutions provided or received personal information, individual consent was required. Currently, the subjects of public disclosure are limited to landlords for whom HUG has repaid jeonse deposits to tenants and then claimed subrogated debt at least twice in the past three years, with the amount of 2 billion won or more. As a result, there had been criticism that it was difficult to share information on malicious landlords among guarantee institutions.