The Rise of Rental Deposit Fraud in Seryu-dong, Suwon-si: How to Protect Yourself

2023-10-09 03:52:47

▲ A house in Seryu-dong, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, where suspicions of a lease fraud arose. Naver Map screen capture

“You’re saying you can’t get the rental deposit back?”

Tenant A (female in her 30s), who lived in a multi-family house (villa) in Seryu-dong, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, received an absurd answer from the landlord last June, regarding three months before the expiration of her contract. When she asked to return the 183 million won in rent money as she had to move to her newlywed home, the parents of her landlord, Mr. Jeong (29), told her, “Don’t look for a house to move into.”

Mr. A and his wife had to move without receiving their deposit back, and the monthly repayment amount, including the funds taken, amounted to 2 million won per month. Mr. A complained, “I now have a child and have become a family of three, but I don’t know how long I can endure because I have to pay twice as much as I originally had to pay.”

According to the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency on the 9th, complaints were received from 52 people (as of the 8th) requesting that Mr. Jeong and his son be punished for fraud in relation to this incident.

The Jeong couple owns a number of real estate corporations, and it is known that these corporations own regarding 40 to 50 buildings in the Suwon area alone.

The amount of damage specified in the complaint amounts to approximately 7 billion won, and the number of complaints filed once morest Mr. and Mrs. Jeong is rapidly increasing, increasing from 21 on the 7th to 31 on the 8th, just one day.

The scale of damage is expected to increase further as there are many tenants who have not yet figured out the situation or are preparing to file a complaint like Mr. A.

The victims are mainly people in their 20s and 30s who are new to society. Most of the cases were newlyweds looking for a place to live for work or a temporary place to live to apply for a house.

Victims began preparing countermeasures, such as creating a KakaoTalk group chat room. It has been discovered that they are also considering a group lawsuit to get their deposit back. The number of group chat room participants presumed to be victims currently stands at 358.

The police plan to investigate in detail the current status of the real estate and rental business owned by Mr. Jeong and his wife, and to investigate the accusers to determine whether they committed the crime with the ‘intention of deception’ to intentionally deceive the tenants.

Reporter Myeong Jong-won

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