Busan City Strengthens 'One-Stop Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims' ... Linking Financial and Legal Services

Busan City-KB Kookmin Bank City Hall Branch Collaborate for One-Stop Fund Loan Consultation Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims

Expansion of Legal Consultation Services and Promotion of Online Consultation Reservation System, Scheduled for Establishme

Busan City is expanding financial and legal consultations for tenants suffering from jeonse fraud damages to strengthen the ‘One-Stop Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims.’

Busan City Hall.

First, tenants visiting the Jeonse Damage Support Center at City Hall can also receive consultations on housing and urban fund loans from the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) through cooperation with KB Kookmin Bank City Hall branch, enabling one-stop support.

Through the Busan City Jeonse Damage Support Center, affected tenants can apply for designation as victims of jeonse fraud, and receive legal and psychological counseling. However, since the housing and urban fund loan support program is conducted through five major banks (Kookmin, Woori, Shinhan, Nonghyup, Hana), and additional consultations and information inquiries are required based on each tenant’s credit and loan status, tenants have experienced inconvenience in receiving financial consultations.

Therefore, the city has partnered with KB Kookmin Bank (City Hall branch) located on the 3rd floor of City Hall to establish a consultation window for victims of jeonse fraud. As a result, tenants visiting the Jeonse Damage Support Center can receive one-stop consultations within City Hall, including for the Jeonse Fund Support Loan and Didimdol Loan for victims of jeonse fraud.

Additionally, to expand legal consultation services for tenants affected by jeonse fraud, an online consultation reservation system will be established to promote legal consultations through prior appointments. Once the reservation system is in place, legal consultations (with two lawyers and legal scriveners) will be available not only to visitors at the center but also via phone.

Currently, legal consultations at the Jeonse Damage Support Center are only available through in-person visits. Considering cases where it is difficult for affected tenants to visit the center, a system for phone consultations through prior reservations will be established.

To this end, the city plans to build an online reservation system for legal consultations for jeonse fraud victims on the Busan City website by January next year.

On April 3rd, the city opened the Jeonse Damage Support Center for the first time outside the metropolitan area, establishing and operating a proactive support system for affected tenants.

On August 7th, the center was relocated to Busan City Hall to strengthen one-stop support functions such as ‘receipt and investigation of victim designation under the special law,’ legal and psychological counseling, and issuance of jeonse damage confirmation certificates.

Since the center’s opening, the city has expanded legal consultations from three times a week through Home Doctor (Ministry of Justice) lawyers to five times a week from October through cooperation with the Busan Bar Association, operating legal litigation consultations daily (Monday to Friday) and plans to continue support. Real estate experts are also invited to provide jeonse and monthly rent contract coaching services twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays).

Furthermore, psychological counseling via phone is provided to victims experiencing psychological difficulties, and if specialist linkage is needed, support is coordinated with local mental health centers.

For stable housing support for victims, Busan City has been implementing the ‘Busan-type Financial and Housing Support’ project, which uniquely combines relocation and housing support nationwide, since September 12th, providing practical policies for victims of jeonse fraud.

The ‘Busan-type Financial and Housing Support’ project offers designated victims of jeonse fraud the following: ▲Interest support for Jeonse Fund Support Loans for affected tenants (up to 2.1%, for 2 years) ▲Temporary monthly rent support for private housing for affected tenants (up to 400,000 KRW, for 2 years) ▲Relocation expenses support (one-time 1.5 million KRW). Victims can receive support in the form of ‘relocation expenses + monthly rent’ or ‘relocation expenses + loan interest.’

The city allocated a contingency budget of 1.66 billion KRW for victim support and, after application intake in September and October, supported a total of 36 cases (19 relocation expenses, 14 monthly rent, 3 loan interest). Efforts are being made to secure next year’s budget to ensure continuous support without disruption.

Additionally, 163 public rental housing units have been secured and provided for victims requiring urgent shelter due to auctions, and to ensure the safety of tenants in affected rental housing, the city is coordinating with related agencies to postpone utility disconnections and conduct safety inspections of elevators and fire facilities.

Moreover, the city is continuously working on prevention by producing campaign videos to promote awareness through the media and to high school and university students, as well as conducting outreach education on jeonse fraud prevention targeting youth.

According to the ‘Special Act on Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims and Housing Stability’ (enforced June 1, 2023), the number of designated ‘jeonse fraud victims’ in Busan is 1,009 cases, with a recognition rate of 90%, which is higher than the national recognition rate of 83.4%.

This is the result of Busan City’s systematic review and counseling for victim recognition, thorough fact-finding investigations including investigations of landlords, and in-depth counseling to ensure affected tenants are recognized as ‘jeonse fraud victims.’

Busan City’s investigation of statements received during victim designation applications, damage confirmation for multiple affected tenants, and investigation status revealed that major damages stem from no-capital gap investment, unauthorized contracts (such as trust fraud), and damages caused by false guarantee insurance subscriptions.

As of the end of October, the investigation results of damage reports received by Busan City show that 84% of victims are in their 20s and 30s, with Busanjin-gu (443 cases) having the highest number of victims by region. The damage scale is mostly between 50 million KRW and 100 million KRW, accounting for 52% of cases. By housing type, officetels (49%) and multi-family houses (35%) are the most common damaged buildings. Monthly victim designation application trends are 499 cases in June, 251 in July, 213 in August, 179 in September, and 111 in October.

Kim Bong-cheol, Director of the Architecture and Housing Bureau, stated, “We will continue to develop policies to prevent jeonse fraud and support victims, doing our best to help affected tenants quickly regain housing stability and return to their daily lives.”

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