"Corporate Landlords Refuse to Return Jeonse Deposits"… 5,019 Cases Over 5 Years

Unreturned Deposits by Corporate Businesses Over the Past 5 Years
Total 5,019 Cases, Damage Amount 535.8 Billion KRW
Top 10 Corporations Account for Over 80% of Incidents and Damage Scale

From 2020 to August of this year, it was revealed that there have been 5,019 cases where tenants did not receive their jeonse deposit from landlords who are corporations. Among these 20 corporate rental businesses, 11 have still not returned a single penny of the jeonse deposit.

On the 16th, Jeong Junho, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, announced this based on data received from the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG).

From 2020 to August of this year, there were 5,019 cases of non-return of jeonse deposits by corporate rental businesses, amounting to 535.8 billion KRW. Among these, the top 10 corporations accounted for 4,260 cases, with tenants losing 441.1 billion KRW. The number of cases and the amount involved in these 10 companies accounted for more than 80% of the total.

During the same period, the average recovery rate of jeonse deposits for the top 10 companies was only 11%. Among these companies, six had a recovery rate of 0%. Although HUG returns the jeonse deposits to the affected tenants through subrogation payments, there are cases where they have not recovered a single penny from the corporations.

Due to subrogation payments, it is also difficult to cancel the registration of these rental businesses. According to the "Special Act on Private Rental Housing," rental business registration can be canceled if there is damage caused by delayed deposit returns. However, since the affected tenants receive their deposits back through HUG's jeonse guarantee, cancellation of registration for the offending corporations has not been enforced.

Assemblyman Jeong said, "HUG and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport must thoroughly investigate the actual conditions of specific corporate incidents and increase the recovery rate of unrecovered jeonse deposits," adding, "Legal penalties against malicious corporations should be strengthened, and comprehensive measures should be established to eradicate rental deposit return fraud."