Still a charter scam… Can I get a deposit if I lose contact with the landlord?

Although the government has been enforcing a special law on jeonse fraud since last June, jeonse scams are still rampant across the country.

Jeonse scams often target the working class and those new to society. Last May, a group of people in Daejeon who committed a rental fraud against people in their 20s and 30s were caught by the police. They were accused of stealing 3 billion won from 37 people who were new to society.

Crimes involving organized and planned lease fraud are increasing, and the scale of damage is significant. As of last July, the number of applications to the court for lease registration orders exceeded 5,000, reaching an all-time high.

Lease registration is a system in which a tenant who has not received a deposit back after the end of the lease contract states that there is an unreturned deposit bond in the register. As the Housing Lease Protection Act was revised and implemented in July, it became possible to register a lease before the court's decision on the lease registration order was notified.

If you are having difficulty returning the deposit because you cannot contact the landlord, this can be resolved through court public notice. Service by public notice is when the complaint cannot be delivered, the court posts the contents to be served on a bulletin board or in the official gazette, and then the contents are considered to have been delivered.

Looking at the lease fraud case that occurred in Gyeonggi-do last March, the lessee received a certificate of all registration details from the real estate agent that brokered the lease contract, and confirmed that the fact that the leased building had been seized due to non-payment was recorded.

 

The landlord explained several times that the seizure would be resolved soon, but as the resolution continued to be delayed, the tenant filed a lawsuit seeking the return of the security deposit. When the landlord did not accept the complaint, he applied for service by public notice and was able to get his deposit worth hundreds of millions of won back.

Daeryun Law Firm (Yuhan), which was in charge of the case, said, “Heavy sentences are being handed down one after another for jeonse fraud offenders, but victims are having difficulty returning their deposits.” He added, “The types of jeonse fraud are very diverse and a cautious approach is necessary as prompt legal response, including evidence collection, is necessary.”

[View full article] - Still a charter scam… Can I get a deposit if I lose contact with the landlord? | Seoul Newspaper (seoul.co.kr)