'Stay-at-Home Era' Celebrities Also Involved in Noise Disputes... Ruling and Opposition Parties Propose Bills

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] As the issue of noise between floors has emerged as a social problem, both ruling and opposition parties are proposing various bills to prevent it. This appears to be due to a sharp increase in disputes over noise between floors last year, as the prolonged ‘stay-at-home’ lifestyle caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to repeated claims on social media that they are suffering from noise caused by the families of famous celebrities.

According to the National Assembly Legislative Information System on the 19th, Han Mu-kyung, a member of the People Power Party on the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee, proposed a partial amendment to the ‘Apartment Housing Management Act’ yesterday. The bill aims to have the state and local governments support the costs necessary for ‘soundproofing measures’ to reduce noise between floors in apartment complexes.

Under the current ‘Housing Act’ and ‘Regulations on Housing Construction Standards, etc.,’ the floor structure standards related to noise between floors in apartment complexes are regulated to meet both a certain thickness standard (concrete slab 210 mm, frame structure 150 mm) and floor impact sound insulation performance standards (light impact sound 58 decibels or less, heavy impact sound 50 decibels or less). However, these apply only to apartment complexes that have received project plan approval since May 7, 2014.

However, for apartment complexes that received project plan approval before May 7, 2014, or those to be completed, the amendment reason is that they only ‘optionally’ secure either a certain thickness standard or a certain floor impact sound insulation performance standard, which fails to effectively prevent noise between floors caused by children running, etc.

Representative Han explained, “By having the state and local governments support the costs necessary for soundproofing measures to reduce floor impact noise in existing apartment complexes, the aim is to alleviate disputes between neighbors caused by noise between floors in apartment complexes.”

Earlier, on the 15th, Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the Democratic Party on the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, introduced a partial amendment to the ‘Housing Act’ to prevent conflicts over noise between floors caused by poor construction of apartment complexes. The bill includes introducing business suspension and punitive damages systems for illegal constructors and strengthening the responsibilities of supervisors.

The amendment allows for evaluating the performance of floor impact sound insulation structures before the use inspection of apartment complexes, imposing sanctions on business entities using products that fail to meet performance standards, and introducing a punitive damages system if intentional illegal construction causes damage to residents.

It also legally adds the confirmation of installation of products recognized for floor impact sound performance grades to the supervisor’s duties and strengthens penalties for intentional violations of the supervisor’s duties.

According to the ‘Noise Between Floors Complaint Reception Status for the Last 5 Years’ submitted to Representative Yang Kyung-sook by the Korea Environment Corporation under the Ministry of Environment, the number of complaints about noise between floors was 19,495 in 2016, 22,849 in 2017, 28,231 in 2018, 26,257 in 2019, and 42,250 in 2020. In particular, complaints last year surged by a whopping 61% compared to the previous year, marking the highest figure in the past five years.

Meanwhile, on social networking services (SNS) recently, there have been successive accounts of experiencing noise between floors caused by celebrity families, including the couple Ahn Sang-tae, the couple Lee Hwi-jae and Moon Jung-won, and comedian Lee Jung-soo.