Land ministry tightens rental fee disclosure rules for private housing

South Korea's land ministry said Tuesday it has promulgated a revised enforcement rule for the Special Act on Private Rental Housing that requires landlords to disclose how maintenance fees and utility charges are calculated.

The revision, effective the same day, obliges a landlord to comply when a tenant or a tenants' representative council asks to inspect accounting audit results or an audit report on the collection and use of maintenance fees and utility charges, unless there is a justifiable reason not to. Landlords must also specify the amount or the calculation basis for those fees in lease contract reports and in the standard lease contract.

The rule was published after a public comment period that ran from July 14 to Aug. 24.

The new article governing what must be reported in a lease contract, along with revised forms for the contract report and the standard contract, applies from April 27, 2027. The remainder, including the obligation to respond to tenant requests, took effect on the promulgation date.

The revision also expands priority allocation in publicly supported private rental housing. An existing occupant of a home demolished for an urban residential improvement or redevelopment project may receive priority for a general-supply unit in the same city, county or district, subject to a one-home-per-household limit and three conditions: the occupant must be a member of a household without home ownership as of the tenant recruitment notice, must have lived in the demolished home for at least a year, and must be recognised by the local government chief as needing housing support. The priority applies to tenant recruitment notices issued after the rule takes effect.