Monthly rent is 300,000 won, but maintenance fees are 380,000 won? Son Sol proposes bill to curb ‘maintenance-fee tricks’

[Financial News] Son Sol, a Progressive Party lawmaker, has begun working on measures to curb the so-called ‘maintenance-fee trick’ of collecting part of the rent as maintenance fees. The key measure is to require landlords to disclose a full breakdown of fees when tenants request it and prohibit them from charging more than the actual costs incurred.
Son held a press conference with young tenants at the National Assembly on the 27th and announced plans to introduce an amendment to the Housing Lease Protection Act containing these measures. The bill would also require maintenance-fee items and amounts to be specified in contracts and allow related disputes to be brought to mediation.
Son said there are significant regulatory gaps in how maintenance fees are calculated and disclosed in studio apartments, multi-family homes and other types of housing where young people often live. The aim, Son argued, should be to stop landlords from avoiding rental regulations by keeping monthly rent unchanged while shifting part of it into maintenance fees.
The bill would first give tenants the right to request a breakdown of maintenance fees. Landlords would be required to provide one when tenants ask for it. The aim is to guarantee tenants’ right to know, since they have found it difficult to determine each month where their maintenance fees are going and how much is being spent. Commercial tenants have had the right to request a breakdown of maintenance fees since May. Son stressed that residential tenants need the same right.
The bill would also prohibit landlords from charging maintenance fees that exceed the actual costs incurred. The aim is to prevent them from setting fees unrelated to necessary costs such as cleaning, electricity for shared areas and building upkeep to generate extra income, or using them as a backdoor way to raise rent.
The bill would also strengthen disclosure at the contract stage. It would require the standard housing lease contract to list the items and amounts charged as maintenance fees, and require landlords to include those fees in the contract whenever they collect them. This would allow tenants to check their actual housing costs, including both rent and maintenance fees, before signing and compare them with other listings.
Disputes over increases or decreases in maintenance fees would be added to the matters handled by the Housing Lease Dispute Mediation Committee. Son said the bill would establish a process to ease the burden on young tenants, who may find it difficult to file a lawsuit over small maintenance-fee amounts, and help them resolve such disputes.
The press conference also presented an example of a contract in which only the labels for rent and maintenance fees had changed. A student living near Ewha Womans University said they had initially been quoted monthly rent of 600,000 won and maintenance fees of 80,000 won, but the contract listed rent of 300,000 won and maintenance fees of 380,000 won. The total paid each month was the same, but the maintenance fees had become higher than the rent. The student also said they paid water, gas, electricity and internet bills separately but had not been told what the maintenance fees covered.
Survey findings illustrating the lack of transparency around maintenance fees were also presented. In a survey of 108 people conducted by the Seodaemun District Committee of the Progressive Party in the Sinchon and Ewha areas, one in three respondents said they had received no information at all about their maintenance-fee breakdown.
Son stressed, “We must go beyond disclosure and ensure that landlords collect only what they actually spend,” adding, “If a charge is unfair, there must also be a way to seek mediation.” Son continued, “For young people, a home is the starting point of life,” and said, “We must not let them learn, from that starting point, to be deceived, put up with it and give up.”
[email protected] Kim Hyeong-gu Reporter