Gangdong-gu Establishes System for Handling Inherited Property of Unclaimed Deceased to Prepare for 'Solo Death' Cases

Establishment of System for Handling Inheritance Property of Unclaimed Deceased...Procedures and Responsible Departments Set to Prevent Third-Party Ownership of Remaining Assets Such as Tenant Deposits, Transferring Them to the National Treasury

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gangdong-gu (District Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon) is taking active measures to address ‘dying alone’ by establishing the first inheritance property management system for unclaimed deceased persons among autonomous districts.

Regarding the procedures for handling the inheritance property of unclaimed persons, since local government heads do not have the authority, the property rights such as lease deposits, bank account balances, and vehicles left by unclaimed persons must be handled according to the provisions of the Civil Act.

Therefore, when an unclaimed deceased occurs, the district office only performed funeral procedures, but could not handle the deceased’s remaining property, resulting in frequent cases where the deceased’s property was owned by a third party.

In particular, it was a major issue that the property of deceased persons who received national benefits such as basic livelihood security recipients was not recovered to the national treasury but came to be owned by third parties.

Accordingly, last year the district designated a department in charge of handling the inheritance property of unclaimed deceased persons and established a system including procedures for managing the inheritance property.

In February of this year, an unclaimed deceased person occurred, and related procedures are being carried out for the first time to handle the deceased’s inheritance property.

The deceased was a basic livelihood security recipient who left about 50 million won in property, so related materials were collected and a request for the appointment of an ‘inheritance property administrator’ was submitted to the prosecution office, and the family court accepted the case on March 8.

In the future, several procedures such as public notice of the appointment of the inheritance property administrator, public notice of inheritance claims, and public notice of searching for heirs will be carried out, taking more than one year, and once all procedures are completed, the inheritance property will revert to the national treasury.

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, said, “Although the process of handling the inheritance property of unclaimed deceased persons is long and complicated and difficulties in work processing are expected, we will proactively respond to the increasing number of ‘dying alone’ cases every year and carefully manage not only funerals but also post-mortem care.”

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