Mr. A moved into a new house but was unable to carry out daily activities due to noise from the upstairs neighbor. Although the upstairs neighbor made every effort to resolve the issue, the problem persisted. With the consent of the upstairs neighbor, the laminate flooring was removed and core samples were taken from two spots on the floor for inspection. It was found to be a construction defect where the cushioning material indicated on the usage inspection drawings was missing.
In the apartment where Mr. B moved in, there were frequent incidents of vehicles getting scratched while descending to the underground parking lot. Upon investigation, the slope of the parking ramp was supposed to be 16.66% according to the usage inspection drawings, but the actual slope in some sections was found to be 19.07%, which was also judged as a defect.
On the 17th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the publication of a "Defect Review and Dispute Mediation Casebook" containing representative cases of defect disputes that can occur in multi-family housing.
This casebook includes a total of 96 representative cases resolved by the Defect Review and Dispute Mediation Committee or handled in lawsuits since 2010, including 76 defect reviews, 11 dispute mediations, 8 re-examinations, and 1 precedent case.
On average, about 4,000 defect-related dispute cases have been submitted annually to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s Defect Review and Dispute Mediation Committee over the past five years. In particular, about 7,700 cases were submitted in 2021 alone, indicating a growing number of disputes related to defects.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport published this casebook to inform that disputes related to defects in multi-family housing can be resolved through the Defect Review and Dispute Mediation Committee instead of litigation, and to serve as a reference for supplying high-quality multi-family housing through thorough construction and for pre-move-in inspections by residents.
Repetitive and frequent defects, commonly disputed defects, and socially significant defects are classified into 18 detailed construction processes, and each case includes site photos to facilitate easy understanding of the incidents.
The casebook is freely available to anyone on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport website (Policy Data/Policy Information/Housing and Land) and the Defect Management Information System (Information Plaza/Notices).
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