[2020 National Audit] One 'Gap Investment' Landlord Defrauds 20.13 Billion KRW from 202 Jeonse Deposits

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Over the past three years, the largest amount of jeonse deposit embezzled by a single landlord reached as many as 202 cases, with the total damage amounting to 41.3 billion KRW.

According to the "2017~June 2020 Jeonse Deposit Return Guarantee Overlapping Incident Status" submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) to Kim Sang-hoon, a member of the People Power Party, landlord A in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, failed to return the jeonse deposits in 202 cases. The damage to tenants alone amounted to 41.31 billion KRW. The cause was the side effects of gap investment.

Due to A, HUG repaid the jeonse deposits for 186 out of the 202 cases, totaling 38.21 billion KRW. However, of the 38.2 billion KRW repaid, the amount claimed and recovered from A was only 0 KRW. This means that due to the guarantee accident caused by a single person, the jeonse deposits of hundreds of households and hundreds of billions of won in taxes were lost.

B in Mapo-gu, Seoul, also failed to return 10.15 billion KRW in jeonse deposits for 50 cases, and C in Gangseo-gu failed to repay about 9.48 billion KRW in jeonse deposits for 48 cases. Outside the metropolitan area, D in Yesan-gun, Chungnam, who did not return 1.26 billion KRW in jeonse deposits for 12 cases to tenants, was the largest offender.

The top 30 landlords who failed to return jeonse deposits owed a total of 549 cases (109.64 billion KRW). Among these, HUG paid 96.66 billion KRW on behalf of tenants, but the amount recovered by claiming from the landlords afterward was only 11.73 billion KRW. Among the top 10, six landlords were not recovered a single won.

Representative Kim said, "One jeonse deposit accident is a very serious issue that can destroy the present and future of a family," adding, "Landlords who embezzle tens or hundreds of jeonse deposits must be dealt with strictly, and the relevant authorities must also establish a system to prevent accidents from occurring in advance."

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