On the 20th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will conduct an intensive survey on 118 local housing cooperatives to eradicate the lack of transparency issues.
A local housing cooperative is a project where households without housing form a cooperative, purchase land, and bear the construction costs to develop dwellings directly. Unlike reconstruction and redevelopment, the procedures are simple, but due to widespread internal operational corruption, the success rate of these projects has been low, leading to the saying "to be advised only to one's enemies."
This year's survey will be conducted in a proactive manner, starting with cooperatives showing signs of fraudulent activities. The Seoul Metropolitan Government will analyze the 452 cases of reported damage received by the Seoul City Damage Counseling Support Center since August of last year, and will intensively conduct joint investigations by city and district experts on cooperatives that have received numerous complaints.
The investigation period will take place from June to October this year in a comprehensive survey format. It has been extended from the previous 4 months to 5 months, and urban and housing administration field experts (MP) will be added to enhance the professional workforce.
To ensure prompt administrative action based on the survey results, post-monitoring will also be conducted. Cases suspected of breach of trust or embezzlement will be referred for investigation, and cooperatives that obstruct or refuse the survey will face reporting actions if they do not cooperate after a specified period of guidance.
In particular, cooperatives identified more than twice for the same violations will immediately face administrative penalties, such as fines or reports, without prior notice.
Through this survey, the Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to assess the operational management of local housing cooperatives and systematically establish improvement measures.
Earlier, the city proposed to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to expand the application of mandatory requirements under housing law during the recruitment reporting stage where issues frequently arise, and to add a basis for the district mayor to dissolve cooperatives that have not made progress for an extended period, even after the sunset clause has passed. It also demanded the legalization of the survey on local housing cooperatives and the public disclosure of survey results to members. Furthermore, it plans to propose additional measures for electronic decision-making methods during cooperative general meetings and standards for contract processing.