Most Unauthorized and Unreported Constructions... Over Half in Seoul
Han Junho "Urgent Need for System Improvements Including Increased Enforcement Fines"
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] It has been revealed that buildings constructed in violation of the law, such as unauthorized construction and change of use, have reached 620,000 cases nationwide over the past five years. However, the enforcement penalty fee averages less than 2 million KRW per case, raising concerns that system improvements are urgently needed.
According to the recent five-year violation building detection status submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Han Junho, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 620,362 cases were ordered to be corrected for violating related laws from 2017 to July this year.
By violation type, unauthorized and unreported construction accounted for about 90%, totaling 561,255 cases, followed by change of use (19,098 cases) and major repairs (10,594 cases).
The area with the highest number of violation buildings was Seoul. Over five years, Seoul received 349,334 correction orders, accounting for more than half of the total. This was followed by Gyeonggi (82,916 cases) and Busan (24,443 cases).
Breaking down by type, the most detected unauthorized and unreported buildings were in Seoul, with 336,443 cases. In Gyeonggi, the highest violations nationwide were in major repairs (3,349 cases), change of use (6,551 cases), and use approval (1,031 cases).
During the same period, cases where enforcement penalty fees were imposed due to failure to comply with correction orders reached 608,068. The total enforcement penalty fees amounted to 988.4 billion KRW. Simply calculating the average fee per case, it was estimated at 1.91 million KRW as of this year.
Representative Han pointed out, "It is necessary to accurately verify whether the enforcement penalty fee is significantly less burdensome than the cost of correcting the violations." According to him, there are also cunning tactics exploiting relatively light enforcement penalty fees online, such as negotiating the sale price of violation buildings considering that the expected profit exceeds the expected enforcement penalty fee.
According to Article 80 of the current Building Act, enforcement penalty fees for unauthorized and unreported buildings can be calculated by multiplying a certain ratio within half of the standard market value of the violation area. However, Article 115-3 of the Enforcement Decree of the same law provides a mitigation measure, stating that "the ratio can be lowered by building ordinances."
Representative Han urged, "If it is economically advantageous to maintain the violation status while paying the enforcement penalty fee, the system will effectively lose its effectiveness. We must promptly prepare and promote system improvement plans such as raising the enforcement penalty fees."
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