Court Rules "Calculation of Exclusive Area in Apartment Complexes Must Be Based on Inner Surface of Exterior Walls"

"To Promote Standardization of Housing Materials"
"Including Thickness Leads to Variations... Unreasonable"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has determined that when calculating the exclusive area of a multi-unit housing complex, the internal line of the exterior wall should be used as the standard. This means that the thickness of the exterior wall should not be included.

According to the legal community on the 17th, the Seoul Administrative Court, Administrative Division 2 (Presiding Judge Jeongmin Lee) ruled in favor of plaintiff A and others in a lawsuit filed against Dongjak District Office, requesting the cancellation of acquisition tax and other imposed charges. The court judged that, regardless of unauthorized extensions, the exclusive area of multi-unit housing should be measured based on the internal line of the exterior wall, not the center line. The court stated, "In the case of multi-unit housing, the exclusive area is calculated based on the internal line of the exterior wall according to the Enforcement Rules of the Housing Construction Promotion Act," adding, "This is to resolve the unreasonable situation where the exclusive area varies depending on the thickness of the exterior wall and to promote the standardization of housing materials."

Previously, Dongjak District Office detected that the plaintiffs had illegally extended a building on the rooftop in August 2015 and used it for residential purposes, and notified them of acquisition tax, classifying their building as a luxury house. According to the Local Tax Act, multi-unit housing with a duplex form exceeding 274㎡ of exclusive area is classified as a luxury house. The registered exclusive area of the plaintiffs' building is 244.59㎡, and the unauthorized extension is 30㎡.

On the other hand, the plaintiffs argued, "The residential exclusive area should be calculated based on the internal line of the exterior wall, not the center line," and "Based on this standard, the exclusive area does not exceed 274㎡." Using the internal line of the exterior wall as the standard, the area of the unauthorized extension by Mr. A is about 26㎡, so the total area does not exceed 274㎡.

The court accepted the plaintiffs' argument. Regarding Dongjak District Office's claim that "the plaintiffs' building does not correspond to a multi-unit housing complex with 30 or more households constructed with approval of the business plan under the Housing Act," the court ruled, "Since the use is designated as 'apartment,' it corresponds to multi-unit housing."