Landlords must now report maintenance fees as South Korea cracks down on disguised rent hikes

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Monday that it will pre-announce amendments to the enforcement decree and rules of the Special Act on Private Rental Housing, aimed at strengthening transparency and oversight of maintenance fees and usage charges for private rental units.

The revisions are designed to prevent maintenance fees and usage charges from being used as a backdoor means of raising rents, while also expanding the authority of provincial and metropolitan governments to oversee private rental housing.

Under the changes, maintenance fees and usage charges will be added to the list of items that must be reported when registering a lease contract. Currently, landlords are required to report only the lease term, rent amount, loan amount (for purchased rental units) and tenant status (for quasi-housing). Going forward, rental business operators must also disclose the amount or calculation method of maintenance fees and usage charges when filing lease contract reports.

The move comes in response to cases in which landlords effectively raised rents by imposing fees under the guise of optional amenity charges, and is intended to bring greater transparency to maintenance and usage fee practices.

Standard lease contract forms will also be revised to require clear disclosure of the maintenance fees and usage charges to be levied from the start of the tenancy, along with the method used to calculate them. In addition, if a tenant or tenant representative council requests an audit of maintenance fees and usage charges from a rental business operator, the operator may not refuse without justifiable cause.

Local governments' authority over private rental housing management will also be expanded. Provincial and metropolitan governments will be allowed to set rent increase caps for private rental complexes of 100 units or more through local ordinances, and will be able to access rental deposit guarantee enrollment information through the Renthome system and other rental housing information platforms. This extends to the provincial and metropolitan level the ordinance-making and information-access powers previously available only to city, county and district governments, strengthening oversight of private rental housing.

The amendments will also broaden the scope of public disclosure for rental conditions reported by landlords. Mayors, county chiefs and district mayors currently publish those conditions only in official local government gazettes; under the new rules, they will also be required to post the information on official websites.

The revisions also ease fines for minor violations such as failing to file a lease contract report, reflecting feedback from local governments that existing penalties are disproportionately high. The current fine structure — 5 million won ($3,320) for a first offense, 7 million won for a second and 10 million won for a third — will be reduced to 3 million won, 5 million won and 10 million won, respectively.

Han Seong-su, the ministry's director general for residential welfare policy, said he hopes the amendments will make maintenance fees and usage charges for private rental housing more transparent and strengthen housing stability for tenants.