Tenants of Happy Housing Face Harsher Penalties for Illegal Subletting Upon Detection

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Crackdowns on illegal subleasing (subletting) transactions of public rental housing such as National, Yeonggu, and Happy Housing are being strengthened, and the level of punishment is also increasing.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 6th, with the end of the six-month grace period of the revised "Special Act on Public Housing" in August last year, it has become possible to verify the identity of residents other than the tenant starting from the 21st.

The revised Special Act provides a legal basis to check whether someone other than the public rental housing tenant is residing. Officials from the Ministry of Land or local governments can now request and review related documents such as family relation registers to verify the identity of residents other than the public rental housing tenant.

The level of punishment for illegal subleasing has also been increased. If a person rents public rental housing by false or fraudulent means or illegally subleases public rental housing, the criminal penalty provisions have been raised from imprisonment of up to 2 years or a fine of up to 20 million won to imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to 30 million won.

The crackdown and punishment level for illegal subleasing transactions of public rental housing are being strengthened because, although public rentals are increasing under the government's housing welfare roadmap, illegal transactions that undermine the purpose of the system are rampant. The government aims to supply 702,000 public rental units by 2022. Following 139,000 units last year, it plans to supply more than 100,000 public rental housing units this year as well.

Until now, there have been repeated cases of illegal subleasing, such as Happy Housing tenants supplied by the government and local governments for young people and newlyweds operating the housing as guesthouses, but proper crackdowns have not been conducted. Officials from the Ministry of Land or local governments did not have the authority to investigate residents other than tenants during regular or occasional surveys of public housing occupancy, so even if tenants subdivided the house or illegally subleased a room to a third party, there were limitations in cracking down on these cases.

According to data submitted by Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) to the National Assembly, the number of illegal subleasing cases detected in public rentals managed by LH totaled 477 over the past four years: 83 cases in 2015, 245 in 2016, 106 in 2017, and 43 in 2018.

A Ministry of Land official said, "Until now, identity verification could only be requested for public rental tenants, but from now on, it will be possible to identify all residents living in the housing and determine whether illegal subleasing has occurred," adding, "We will intensively track cases of illegal subleasing in public rentals."

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