The "Fifth Special Act on Real Estate Registration" was introduced in Sept. 2023 during the 21st National Assembly. It aimed to resolve, through a simplified process, long-standing discrepancies between actual rights relations and the registration. But the bill was discarded at the end of the term without passing The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
A similar bill was newly introduced in July 2024 in the 22nd National Assembly, but it has not even been reviewed to date. As the bill has failed to clear the National Assembly threshold for 2 years and 7 months, some say "there is a need to expedite legislation to guarantee people's property rights."
◇ Four rounds of the special act on real estate registration implemented… a case registered after 92 years
Previously, the special act on real estate registration was implemented four times as a temporary special law. Those periods were 1978 (in effect for six years), 1993 (two years), 2006 (two years), and 2020 (two years). When the registered name of land or dwellings that the person or their predecessors had possessed and used for decades remained different, the act allowed the registration to be corrected to reflect the actual rights through a simplified process. It was a measure to resolve problems arising as related documents were lost during the Japanese colonial period and the 6/25 war, or as those who could testify to the rights relations died or moved away.
Through this, cases in which ownership had long failed to be reflected in registration could be remedied. A, who lives in Goesan County, North Chungcheong, owned a field of 291㎡ (about 88 pyeong) handed down since the time of A's grandfather. The field was acquired by A's grandfather in 1930 during the Japanese colonial period and passed down through the generations to A. However, during the process of inheritance from the grandfather to the father, the registration transfer was not properly completed, and even after the father died, the land ledger and registry remained uncorrected. A, the de facto owner, was only able to complete the inheritance registration in 2022, when the fourth special act on real estate was in force. It was 92 years after the grandfather acquired the field.
◇ Fourth special act constrained by COVID-19… "the fifth special act must pass"
The reason the fifth special act on real estate registration was introduced in the 22nd National Assembly following the 21st is that the outbreak of COVID-19 during the enforcement period of the fourth special act created difficulties in using the system. To verify rights relations, in-person procedures with guarantors such as attorneys, beommusa, and village residents were essential, but many were unable to proceed due to social distancing and movement restrictions.
If registration cleanup does not occur, the exercise of property rights—such as sale, inheritance, and setting collateral—inevitably faces difficulties. If such problems persist, residents of rural and fishing communities, who particularly have lower access to legal services, may suffer harm.
Accordingly, there are calls to classify the fifth special act on real estate registration as a livelihood bill and process it swiftly. Lee Gang-cheon, president of the Korea Association of Beommusa Lawyer, said, "The special act is an urgent livelihood remedy to help those legally vulnerable who were deprived of opportunities to exercise legitimate property rights amid a national disaster situation," and "We strongly urge the National Assembly to promptly pass the fifth special act so residents of eup and myeon areas can regain their rightful rights through simplified procedures."