Building owners cannot seek relaxed rules for change of use, government legislation ministry says

The government legislation ministry said Tuesday that building owners cannot request relaxed building standards when they change a building's use without carrying out remodeling work, closing off a route that Seoul's city government had asked it to clarify.

The ministry's answer, issued in response to a query from the Seoul metropolitan government, turned on the wording of Article 5 of the Building Act and Article 6, Paragraph 1, Item 6 of its enforcement decree, which allow such requests only for buildings inside a designated remodeling promotion zone or buildings at least 15 years past their use approval that need remodeling.

Remodeling is defined under the law as major repairs, or partial extension or reconstruction, undertaken to slow a building's deterioration or improve its function. The ministry drew a distinction between that and a change of use, which alters only what a building is used for.

The decree limits which standards may be relaxed: landscaping, public open space, building lines, building-to-land ratio, floor area ratio, setback requirements, height limits and height restrictions for sunlight.

It also pointed to the purpose behind the two provisions: the remodeling promotion zone clause was introduced to improve the business case for remodeling, while the 15-year clause is meant to encourage owners of older buildings to extend or rebuild. A building qualifies for neither benefit simply by sitting inside such a zone or by having aged past that threshold.

Allowing the request for a use conversion would also mean two identical conversions were treated differently depending on whether the building happened to lie inside a remodeling promotion zone, the ministry said.

Seoul had asked whether building owners could seek the relaxed treatment under Article 5 and the decree when the conversion did not involve remodeling. The ministry said they could not.