“Foreign residents should also check the ‘Safe Jeonse App’ before signing a housing rental contract”

Recently, social concerns about charter fraud are growing in Korea.

In response, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korea announced that it will operate a 'Safe Charter App' that provides information necessary for tenants to sign a global contract with Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) and Korea Real Estate Agency.

In the future, it will be possible to easily find out the market price, landlord information, and the risk of housing before moving into a jeonse. It is expected to be of great help to foreign residents who are not familiar with Korean real estate.

All house quotes provided

The ‘Safe Jeonse App’ provides market prices for multi-family, row houses, and small apartments under 50 households, which have been difficult to grasp in the past, from the metropolitan area.

Then, in July, residential officetels will be added, while the scope of information disclosure will be expanded to local metropolitan cities such as Busan.

In particular, it was decided to provide market price information on newly built villas, which have recently been the main target of charter scams.

Usually, it was difficult to know the appropriate market price for new villas, as there are many cases in which contracts are made before the completion of the contract.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport raises the “provisional market price” one month before the completion of the new villa and the “confirmed market price” one month after completion.

Deposit self-diagnosis possible

The Safe Jeonse app also includes a “self-diagnosis” item that lets you know whether the world contract is reliable by entering data such as senior rights, mortgage, and jeonse deposit based on the calculated market price.

You can also check whether the house in question is eligible for HUG's deposit return guarantee.

In addition, the safe charter app also provides information such as the landlord's history of past guarantee accidents, whether HUG guarantee subscription is prohibited, whether malicious lessors are registered, and the lessor's default history.

In addition, in the future, even without the consent of the landlord, the tenant will be able to view the list of malicious landlords on the Safe Jeonse app.

Check all information at once

In addition, the safe charter app also includes a function that allows you to search for administrative information necessary when making a global contract at once.

Using this, it is possible to peruse building ledgers and certified copies of registers, and it is possible to find out whether a licensed real estate agent is operating, standard contract forms, and registered rental business information.

In particular, if the registered copy is viewed even once, the lessee is notified of this through KakaoTalk every time the contents of the registered house change for the next 2 years and 6 months.

It remains to be seen whether the safe charter app can become a “smart means” to protect both Koreans and foreign residents from charter scams. However, multilingual services should be added for foreign residents.