Pre-move-in inspections at large apartment complexes to expand to minimum 3 days

The mandatory pre-move-in inspection period for newly built large apartment complexes will be extended from two days to three as early as the end of this year. The government is pushing to revamp the system to require at least three days of inspections, including a weekend or holiday, giving prospective residents more scheduling flexibility and enabling more thorough defect checks.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, a proposed amendment to the enforcement rules of the Housing Act has been open for legislative notice from Wednesday through Nov. 2.

The core of the amendment is a provision allowing the government to recommend that project developers conduct pre-move-in inspections for at least three days at residential complexes of 1,000 units or more. The pre-move-in inspection system, introduced in 1999, allows prospective residents to tour their units before completion approval is granted and check finishing quality and any defects. It was voluntary at first but was made mandatory in 2021 after a string of cases in which defects emerged en masse after residents had already moved in.

The current Article 20-2 of the Housing Act enforcement rules requires inspections to be conducted for at least two days, starting no later than 45 days before the designated move-in period begins. However, the two-day minimum has applied equally to large complexes exceeding 1,000 units, drawing repeated criticism that the inspection time is insufficient given the scale and number of households. The amendment is intended to establish a legal basis for requiring at least three days specifically for large complexes.

The push to extend inspection days is also part of the Lee Jae Myung government's "residential environment improvement" initiative, one of its 123 national policy tasks. "The current government is pursuing residential environment improvements, including reforms to the pre-visit and quality inspection systems, as a national policy task," a ministry official said. "As the need to supply high-quality housing by minimizing defects in new apartments has grown, we plan to minimize harm to residents by improving procedures such as extending the pre-visit period."

Beyond extending the inspection period, the amendment also spells out detailed requirements to improve convenience for prospective residents — including a mandate that at least one weekend day (Saturday, Sunday or public holiday) be included in the pre-visit period, and that inspection hours cover at least the window from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In addition, while developers are currently required to notify prospective residents at least 10 days before the start of a pre-move-in inspection if they wish to reschedule, the amendment would extend that notice requirement to 20 days in advance.

The amendment also includes measures to strengthen overall quality management at apartment complexes. The standard for the number of units subject to interior inspections by local government quality inspection teams would expand from "three or more units" to at least 1 percent of all units in a complex. For a 1,000-unit complex, for example, inspectors currently need only check three units, but under the revised rules they would be required to inspect at least 10.

The ministry is targeting a December rollout for the amended enforcement rules, though officials said the timeline could shift depending on the regulatory review process.

"Many project sites already conduct pre-move-in inspections for three or more days, but we want to codify this clearly in the rules to make the inspections more effective," a ministry official said. "Because this falls under a regulatory tightening category, it must go through the relevant review procedures, so the implementation date could be adjusted."

Meanwhile, the number of apartment defects has been rising every year. Data obtained from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Eom Tae-young showed that the Defect Review and Dispute Mediation Committee ruled on 680 apartment defect cases last year, up 28.8 percent from 528 the year before. The annual trend shows a steady climb: 285 cases in 2022, 336 in 2023, 528 in 2024 and 680 in 2025. The increase is attributed in part to a surge in defect review applications, which rose from 1,144 in 2022 to 1,325 in 2023, 2,811 in 2024 and 3,442 in 2025.