The Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) will define foreign landlords who cause lease guarantee accidents as "malicious landlords" starting this month and will immediately proceed with debt recovery through auction.
On the 14th, HUG noted that if a lease guarantee accident occurs and HUG refunds the deposit on behalf of the landlord, and the landlord is a foreigner, it will immediately begin debt recovery. In contrast, if a domestic landlord causes a lease deposit refund guarantee accident, they will be given a maximum grace period of six months before being subjected to forced auction.
HUG has decided to apply stricter regulations for foreign landlords, considering that their residence status is unclear and it is difficult to recover deposits when they return to their home country. This level is equivalent to that of habitual "malicious landlords (concentrated management of multiple housing debtors)" who repeatedly fail to refund deposits. HUG will classify and manage landlords as malicious landlords if they have ceased contact among those who have caused three or more lease deposit refund accidents or have unreturned debts exceeding 200 million won.
According to court registration information, the number of foreign landlords in Seoul last year was 7,966, which is a 72.1% increase from the previous year (4,627). The number of lease guarantee accidents involving foreign landlords as of 2023 is 23 cases (5.3 billion won).