Housing shortage and owner-occupancy rules fuel surge in conflicts; deposit returns top complaint list; experts urge written contracts to prevent disputes
"The landlord said he would help me find a new jeonse place if I cooperated with the sale. But once the deal closed, he just washed his hands of it. There are no jeonse listings out there, and my kids' school situation is a real problem — what am I supposed to do?" said Tenant A.
Market confusion is growing as government real estate policies centered on owner-occupancy requirements — including the land transaction permit zone system — have sharply reduced the supply of rental listings.
Tenants who cannot find a new place after their contracts expire are digging in and refusing to leave, while some landlords are breaking promises made to tenants. The variety of conflicts has driven filings with the Housing Lease Dispute Mediation Committee to more than double in the span of a year.
Data submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Mi-ae, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, show that 618 housing disputes were filed with the committee from January through April this year — 2.3 times the 274 cases recorded in the same period last year. The figure already exceeds half of the 1,170 cases filed for all of last year. By contrast, commercial lease disputes totaled 68 cases over the same period, barely changed from 63 a year earlier.
The most common category was "return of deposit or property," accounting for roughly 34 percent of cases, or 210 filings. Maintenance and repair obligations followed with 147 cases, then damages claims (74), contract renewal and termination (69), and contract performance and interpretation (61). The "lease term" category, which recorded zero cases in the same period last year, drew seven filings this year — meaning every category saw an increase.
A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official said major cases include disputes over rent increases or decreases, contract renewal procedures and agreed conditions, and instances where landlords refused to renew a contract on grounds of owner-occupancy but then listed the property for a third party — prompting tenants to seek damages.
Industry observers say the worsening housing crunch for tenants, driven by policy changes tightening owner-occupancy requirements, lies behind the surge in conflicts. As landlords vacate properties to move in themselves or to sell, rental supply has shrunk and prices have risen, leaving tenants with nowhere to go.
"When there are plenty of listings, tenants have options to handle variables like moving timelines or lease adjustments — but in a jeonse shortage, there are no alternatives," one real estate expert said. "Buying is not easy in a high-interest-rate environment, and Seoul is in a state of excess demand, so we could see a growing number of extreme cases ending up in legal disputes."
Conflicts between landlords and tenants are playing out across the market. Since non-resident single-property owners were recently permitted to sell properties with sitting tenants, some tenants who find it difficult to exercise their renewal rights have been holding out.
B, who owns a property in the greater Seoul area, said the situation has become awkward. "Non-resident single-property owners are now allowed to sell, so I told the tenant I wanted to sell the wolse unit — but the tenant has been ignoring all texts, messages and calls, and won't let anyone view the place," B said. "Fortunately, a buyer willing to purchase without a viewing has come forward, so we're proceeding with the contract."
Another landlord, C, said the tenant refused to leave even after the contract expired. "I offered 10 million won (about $6,470) as a consolation payment, but they held firm, so I had to hire a lawyer to deal with it," C said.
Landlords, for their part, are taking a more proactive approach to tenant management to avoid conflict. D, a jeonse tenant in Gyeonggi Province, said the landlord reached out exactly six months before the contract's expiration to ask whether D intended to renew. "It's not easy to find a place available for move-in six months from now, and being pressured to decide right away was unsettling," D said.
Experts say that as uncertainty in the rental market grows, both landlords and tenants will become increasingly assertive in protecting their rights.
Kim Hyo-seon, a senior real estate specialist at KB Kookmin Bank, said tenants should secure objective documentation — text messages, certified mail and the like — rather than relying on verbal promises, and should put any agreement to waive renewal rights or move out in writing to avoid future disadvantages. "Sellers should also confirm in advance whether a tenant's exercise of the right to request renewal can be transferred to the buyer, in order to reduce the potential for conflict," Kim said.
hope@heraldcorp.com
