Lee Jae-myung: "Dark Office-tel Maintenance Fees Must Not Be Neglected... Will Reform the System" (Comprehensive)

Lee Jae-myung "Excessive Office-tel Management Fees... Will Reform the System"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated on the 20th, "We will no longer tolerate the excessive charging of officetel management fees."

On the same day, Lee posted on his social media (SNS) that as the 23rd pledge of 'Myeonghwakhaeng (Lee Jae-myung's Certain Happiness)', he would "reform the system and focus administrative power to improve the unreasonable realities related to management fees of collective buildings such as officetels." Myeonghwakhaeng is a series of pledges where Lee introduces policies that achieved results during his tenure as Governor of Gyeonggi Province and expresses his intention to apply them across the national government.

Lee said, "Since officetels are legally considered workspaces rather than residential spaces, the management committee imposes management fees without special restrictions," adding, "For socially vulnerable groups such as young adults starting their careers, living in an officetel of about 7 pyeong (23㎡) requires an additional 200,000 KRW management fee on top of a minimum monthly rent of 500,000 KRW, which is a significant burden."

He continued, "While the management fee for the most luxurious residential-commercial complexes in Gangnam is about 3,000 KRW/㎡, some officetels charge 5,000 KRW per ㎡, and in some cases, even exceed 6,000 KRW," noting, "Many analyses suggest that this inflated officetel management fee stems from the opaque operations of the management committees."

He stated, "Due to the tyranny of sales agents and management companies and unstructured management, officetel management is not properly conducted, leading to increasing harm to residents and conflicts with management companies," but also said, "The Collective Building Act excludes administrative intervention and does not grant supervisory authority due to reasons such as violation of the principle of private autonomy. When disputes arise, officetel residents have no proper place to seek help."

Lee particularly introduced that Gyeonggi Province proposed a bill to grant local governments the authority to enter management offices of collective buildings such as officetels, which are blind spots in supervision, to investigate or inspect facilities, ledgers, and documents to protect residents.

Additionally, he mentioned efforts to resolve institutional problems by proposing bills such as ▲non-disclosure of management fee details by unregistered management companies, and ▲establishment of a registration system for specialized collective building management companies to prevent disputes like overcharging. Based on these alternative measures from Gyeonggi Province, Lee pledged that if elected president, he would improve the officetel management fee issue.

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