On the 5th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that each autonomous district will lend safety inspection costs to aging apartments seeking reconstruction.
The city explained that it has established the "Standards for Handling Support for Reconstruction Safety Inspection Costs" containing these details and distributed it to all autonomous districts, with the full-scale implementation of the system starting this month.
Since the initial safety inspection costs in reconstruction projects are a significant burden for residents, the intention is to alleviate the difficulty of initial funding and promote reconstruction.
The support standards follow the Seoul Metropolitan City Urban and Residential Environment Maintenance Ordinance passed by the Seoul Metropolitan Council in March this year. The ordinance stipulates that complexes wishing to conduct reconstruction safety inspections must obtain consent from the majority of landowners and request cost support from the autonomous district, and the supported costs must be returned in cash before the project implementation approval.
If the party requesting the safety inspection signs an agreement with the autonomous district including the cost, repayment method, and deadline, they can receive safety inspection cost support once.
The standards prepared by the Seoul Metropolitan Government include detailed contents such as support and agreement criteria.
Support for reconstruction safety inspection costs will be operated by subscribing to a performance guarantee insurance from a surety insurance company. Reconstruction promotion complexes must form a joint representation of up to 10 people and subscribe to the surety insurance.
The city plans to sign an agreement with surety insurance companies regarding the establishment of new products within this month to ensure no disruption in supporting safety inspection costs.
The loan period is up to 10 years from the initial loan date or until the application for project implementation plan approval. Once a contractor is selected, the safety inspection costs must be returned in cash within 30 days from the selection date. If cancellation reasons such as redevelopment zone cancellation occur, the costs must be returned within 6 months.
Each autonomous district reviews the application submitted by the resident representatives of the reconstruction promotion complex and signs an agreement if the support criteria are met. If reasons such as changes in resident representatives occur, a change agreement must be compulsorily signed within 30 days.
The city added that it is in practical consultation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to allow pre-accumulation of the costs necessary for safety inspections.
Han Byung-yong, Director of the Seoul Housing Policy Office, said, "We are preparing a budget for loan support targeting about 35 complexes in 11 autonomous districts in the second half of the year," and added, "We will continue to discover policy support measures to revitalize reconstruction projects throughout Seoul."
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