A system will be put in place so that prospective tenants ahead of signing a jeonse lease can easily check priority deposit and other rights information all at once and avoid risky contracts in advance.
On the 10th, the government announced anti-jeonse scam measures in cooperation with related ministries. The plan centers on a preventive system to block jeonse scams in advance, including integrating and providing risk information related to contracts before a jeonse agreement is signed.
The measures shift the policy paradigm from after-the-fact relief to "preemptive prevention," focusing on eliminating information asymmetry between tenants and landlords and improving transparency in the jeonse transaction environment.
First, risk assessment information, including priority rights information, will be provided in an integrated manner before a jeonse lease is signed. Currently, to obtain priority rights information on a rental home, a prospective tenant must get the landlord's consent before the contract and visit multiple government offices, making the process complex and inconvenient. Even if all information is secured, it has been difficult to analyze priority rights relationships, which resemble a random number table, and assess risk levels.
To resolve these inconveniences, registration, fixed-date, resident registration, and tax delinquency information scattered across multiple agencies will be linked to analyze priority rights information and assess risk levels, and then provided so that prospective tenants can easily check everything at once before signing.
To that end, the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) will upgrade its "Safe Jeonse" application (app) and, even before a legal basis for information provision is established, begin offering a public service based on landlord consent starting in September.
Next, the effective time for the right of resistance will be adjusted to the time the move-in report is processed and linked with the financial system. Under current rules, some landlords exploited the time gap between the effectiveness of a mortgage (upon filing) and a tenant's right of resistance (at 12:00 a.m. the next day), obtaining bank loans by setting up a mortgage immediately after the tenant filed the move-in report.
To fundamentally block deceptive acts that exploit this legal loophole, the effectiveness of the right of resistance, which has arisen at "12:00 a.m. the next day" after a move-in report, will be improved to arise at the "time the move-in report is processed" once the tenant has completed moving.
In addition, through consultations with the banking sector, the government will pursue linking with the financial system so that a tenant's priority deposit can be checked immediately, preventing duplicate loans by landlords. A project is underway to share, in real time, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) fixed-date information for dwellings scheduled for loans with financial institutions (including primary and secondary financial institutions and internet banks), and a project to provide Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) resident household information to banks (KB and four others) will be expanded in stages to primary and secondary financial institutions.
The duty and liability of licensed real estate agents to explain integrated rights information will also be strengthened. Licensed agents have a duty to explain rights relationships, but because they explain priority-related materials based on documents submitted by the landlord, there has been concern that tenants could suffer harm if a landlord provides inaccurate priority rights materials.
Licensed agents will be required to directly check the status of priority deposits and other details through the integrated information system and must explain them to tenants, with stronger obligations. If they violate the duty to check and explain, the government will raise the level of penalties, including higher fines and business suspensions, to induce responsible brokerage.
Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, "Jeonse fraud is a serious crime and a social disaster that robs young people taking their first steps in society of their assets and hopes in an instant," and added, "To improve the structural vulnerabilities of jeonse contracts, such as information asymmetry, the state will mobilize all government capabilities to ensure a prospective tenant can sign with confidence."