Land Register 124 Pyeong, Actual Area 34 Pyeong... Who Is Responsible for the Recording Error?

Gwangsan-gu "No Responsibility... Parties Must Reach Agreement"
Official Who Recorded '三' as '一二' 70 Years Ago

A landowner who paid more than three times the actual price due to an inflated area caused by a land register entry error is struggling to find a way to recover the loss.

On the 18th, according to Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, the owner of a farmland filed a damage compensation complaint against the district office regarding the reduction of the registered land area in the land register from 410㎡ (124 pyeong) to 114㎡ (34 pyeong).

Mr. A purchased the land in March 2020 to build a storage shed for agricultural machinery, but during the design and permit preparation process for constructing the shed on the farmland, he discovered an error in the land register area.

As a result of a precise measurement, the land turned out to be a 'leftover land' barely suitable for use, let alone building a new structure.

The land register was first created in 1910 during the Japanese colonial period. The original land register information, which was handwritten vertically, was revised in 1952 during the Japanese era, and during this process, a public official mistakenly transcribed the area of 三四 (34) pyeong as 一二四 (124) pyeong, initiating the error.

The '124 pyeong' error persisted even after digitization, and while the land ownership changed several times, the land, which was only 34 pyeong, was consistently traded at the value of 124 pyeong.

By correcting the area information, Mr. A had to bear the financial loss corresponding to the reduced land size.

Gwangsan-gu, after consulting legal experts and inquiring with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, conveyed to Mr. A that 'the administrative agency holds no responsibility.'

A Gwangsan-gu official stated, "Relevant laws stipulate that if a landowner discovers an error in the current information, they should apply for correction to the responsible agency," adding, "Even if the registered area increases or decreases due to correction, there are no separate regulations for compensation."

He further added, "This matter is judged to be one that should be resolved through civil litigation between the parties involved in the land transaction, such as contract cancellation or damages."

Mr. A expressed frustration with Gwangsan-gu's response, saying that if the official in charge had conducted an on-site inspection during the land category change in March 1997, such an absurd situation would not have continued.

Meanwhile, in October last year, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) ruled that the real owner's request for correction was reasonable after discovering that the landowner was incorrectly recorded in the land register due to a land readjustment project, more than 30 years later.

At that time, Lim Jin-hong, the grievance complaint deliberator at the ACRC, stated, "There should be no infringement on citizens' property rights due to errors in the official records (gongbu) created and managed for administrative purposes," and added, "We will continue to actively strive to promptly correct any clear errors found in official records to alleviate public inconvenience and protect rights."

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