A notice advertising a studio apartment for monthly rent is posted outside a real estate office in Seoul. Photo by Asia Today
Jan. 11 (Asia Today) — South Korean tenants who pay monthly maintenance fees in studio apartments and multi-family homes are increasingly disputing who must cover repair costs when in-unit equipment breaks, as housing lease mediation applications have surged in recent years.
Park Geon-ho, 28, said a washing machine in his one-room unit in Seoul’s Dongjak district broke less than two weeks after he moved in last January. When he asked the landlord to fix it, Park said he was told the cost could not be covered until an official service center confirmed the cause.
Needing laundry service immediately, Park said he hired a private repair company. He later split the 400,000 won ($310) repair bill with the landlord. Park said tenants often pay first even though they pay monthly maintenance fees and he said he was never told what those fees include.
A tenant in an officetel in Seoul’s Gwanak district said an air conditioner was heavily contaminated before he moved in last December. The tenant said a cleaning company warned it could be harmful and advised against using it but he said the unit was not replaced after he notified the landlord. He said he has since dealt with recurring throat and skin problems and installed a ventilation filter on his own.
Critics say the disputes are fueled by vague definitions of what maintenance fees cover in studio apartments and multi-family housing, where monthly charges may be fixed but management responsibilities are unclear.
According to the Housing and Commercial Building Lease Dispute Mediation Committee, housing lease dispute mediation applications rose from 44 cases in 2020 to 665 cases in 2023 and 709 cases in 2024.
The report said an institutional gap affects studios and multi-family homes because they are not covered by the Apartment Management Act. As a result, there are no standardized rules for fee items, calculation criteria, a requirement to provide statements or clear boundaries for what management includes. While maintenance fees are often explained as covering shared utilities such as electricity and water, responsibility for repairs to in-unit facilities such as washing machines or boilers is often left to a landlord’s discretion.
President Lee Jae-myung ordered a review last September of broader measures to address maintenance fee disputes in studios and multi-family homes, calling for improvements to collective building management and fact-finding, the report said.
Lawmakers are also reviewing revisions. A proposed amendment to the Housing Lease Protection Act submitted Dec. 9 would require landlords to specify total maintenance fees and calculation standards for each item in lease contracts, including for multi-unit housing outside mandatory management rules, according to the report.
Real estate industry officials said collecting maintenance fees implies a level of management responsibility and urged tenants to report defects immediately upon move-in to help clarify liability. They also called for maintenance scope to be spelled out at the contract stage to prevent repeat disputes.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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