203 People Flee with Jeonse Deposit of 780 Billion Won... Most Victims Are in Their 20s and 30s

Kim Hak-yong, People Power Party Lawmaker: "Urgent Response Needed"

Photo by Yonhap News

Over the past three years, more than 200 malicious landlords (concentrated management multi-home debtors) have absconded with approximately 780 billion KRW in jeonse deposits.

Malicious landlords refer to multi-homeowners who fail to return jeonse deposits to tenants, prompting the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) to make subrogation payments three or more times, yet they cut off contact and show no intention of repayment. Most of the victims were young people in their 20s and 30s, including youth and early career workers.

According to data submitted by HUG to Kim Hak-yong, a member of the People Power Party, as of the end of July, there were a total of 203 malicious landlords (179 individuals and 24 corporations), with the scale of jeonse deposit incidents caused by them reaching 782.4 billion KRW (3,761 cases).

Looking at the damage status by age group, there was 1 case in teenagers (400 million KRW), 788 cases in their 20s (160.1 billion KRW), 2,019 cases in their 30s (420.4 billion KRW), 590 cases in their 40s (124 billion KRW), 229 cases in their 50s (50.5 billion KRW), 114 cases in their 60s to 90s (24.9 billion KRW), and 20 cases involving corporations (2.1 billion KRW).

The 20s and 30s age group, which includes youth, newlyweds, and early career workers, suffered concentrated damage. The total amount of damage for this group reached 540 billion KRW.

The malicious landlord who absconded with the largest amount of jeonse deposits was Mr. Lee, who caused 286 cases amounting to 58.1 billion KRW. Following him were Mr. Jung with 229 cases totaling 53.3 billion KRW, and Mr. Kim with 221 cases totaling 51.9 billion KRW.

Source: Office of Assemblyman Kim Hak-yong

Assemblyman Kim Hak-yong said, "It is somewhat fortunate for tenants who received subrogation payments from HUG," but added, "Considering that the subscription rate for jeonse deposit guarantees is around 10%, there are likely many more victims who lose almost all their assets and cannot even complain."

He also stated, "In addition to increasing the subscription rate for jeonse deposit guarantees, it is necessary to thoroughly examine HUG’s screening process from the initial stage of the jeonse deposit guarantee to prevent jeonse fraud, and to prepare institutional improvements and response measures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.