Refer Report
At the ‘Zipconomy Expo 2024’, which is being held for two days starting on the 27th, HUG (Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation)’s promotional booth to prevent damage from rental fraud is attracting attention. We received favorable reviews from visitors by explaining how to prevent damage to young prospective tenants who are afraid of signing a lease due to concerns about damage from lease fraud and by presenting HUG’s unique solutions, such as a safe lease app.
On the 28th, the day after the Zipconomy Expo, HUG introduced various support measures to prevent damage from rental fraud. Representative examples include benefits such as legal consultation and loan support, as well as the ‘safe lease app’ that allows you to directly check houses at risk of lease fraud in advance.
The booth was visited by prospective tenants who were worried about being affected by lease fraud. A visitor who visited the booth that day said, “I started looking into what I could do to prevent fraud because of the news around me that I couldn’t get my deposit back.”
So far, HUG has faithfully fulfilled its role in protecting tenants by providing a deposit return guarantee. The rental deposit return guarantee is a guarantee that takes responsibility for the return of the rental deposit that the landlord must return to the tenant after the termination of the rental contract, and is the best safety net that resolves the anxiety of the common people in unstable situations such as the rental fraud mentioned above.
To prevent lease fraud, the promotion of ‘Safe lease App 2.0’, an essential pre-contract platform developed by HUG in collaboration with related organizations such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Real Estate Agency, also attracted attention. ‘Safe Rental App’ is an app created to help tenants check key information needed when signing a lease at a glance. In particular, as the Act on Disclosing the List of Malicious Landlords goes into effect on the 29th, users can check in advance whether they are malicious landlords through the app, which is expected to further increase its usability.
In addition, information was provided on various policy support activities being promoted by HUG to provide relief to victims of lease fraud. In September of last year, HUG established and began operating the ‘Lease Damage Support Center’ in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu to provide legal counseling, emergency housing support, and low-interest loans to victims of rental fraud. An additional store was opened in the Busan area. In addition, with the enforcement of the special law on lease fraud in June of this year, the ‘Lease Fraud Victim Auction and Public Auction Support Center’ has been opened in Jongno-gu, Seoul since August to provide victims with a portion of legal service agency costs and expert consultation.
Reporter Yoo Oh-sang osyoo@hankyung.com
Source: Korean