HUG Revised Terms but Failed to Notify for Over 2 Months... Jeonse Fraud Victims Left Helpless

Even When Visiting the Center to Reapply for Insurance Payment, Only "No Notice" Response
After Flood of Inquiries, Late Acceptance of Documents... Relief Criteria Still 'Pending'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) revised its internal regulations to expand the scope of insurance payment guarantees to protect tenants, but it has been confirmed that no separate guidance has been provided to the affected tenants for over two months.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy on the 26th, HUG amended part of its terms and conditions on August 5th regarding cases where insurance payments were withheld from tenants who fell victim to jeonse fraud, citing violations of the terms. A representative clause in the revised terms is "Article 13: Conditions for Establishing Guarantee Obligations (tenants must have completed moving-in registration and obtained a fixed date on the loan execution date)." Until now, under this clause, tenants who were victims of jeonse fraud but registered their moving-in even one day late were excluded from guarantee fulfillment.

As similar types of jeonse fraud cases surged and some tenants filed lawsuits against HUG, the corporation revised the terms and expanded the scope of guarantee fulfillment. HUG explained, "To actively protect tenants, we changed internal regulations to include guarantee fulfillment if the lease contract succession between the parties in the sale is proven and there is no infringement of rights such as mortgages before moving-in registration."

Accordingly, it was expected that many previously rejected tenants would be rescued. HUG also promised to provide guidance on the terms change to the affected tenants and to pay the insurance money sequentially.

However, it has been revealed that HUG has not kept its promise for over two months since the terms were changed. Tenants who learned about the terms change through media reports and visited local centers to reapply for insurance payments were only told, "There has been no notice from headquarters regarding the terms change."

As reapplications for deposit payments related to the terms change increased, the centers belatedly confirmed the facts with headquarters and only then began accepting related documents. This confusion arose because, despite changing the terms to help the affected tenants, proper guidance was not provided.

This handling method by HUG has only increased the confusion among tenants who were victims of jeonse fraud. In fact, even though some have received their deposits back, many are anxious that they might not be eligible and are seeking other methods such as real estate auctions, separate from reapplying for insurance payments.

Regarding this, HUG stated, "Although the terms have been changed, the criteria for identifying eligible tenants for relief have not yet been established, causing delays in applying the related content," and added, "We will establish the criteria as soon as possible and provide guidance on reapplying for insurance payment fulfillment."