Four years after their wedding, with a child, yet still unmarried? A two-homeowner’s “suspicious avoidance” of marriage registration

[Financial News] #. A lives with a wife and two children in an apartment in Seoul. A changed the wife’s registered address to her father’s home in the same complex. She was registered there despite not actually living there. A then counted the father-in-law as a dependent family member to raise the housing application score and was selected for a home supplied in Seoul through the general allocation.
#. B, who owns two homes, held a wedding ceremony with a spouse four years ago and is raising a child, but did not register the marriage. The aim was to qualify as a household with no home. B later applied for a home supplied in Incheon through the general allocation, qualifying as a person with no home, and was selected.
A large number of suspected fraudulent housing applications were uncovered, involving people who inflated the number of dependent family members or delayed registering their marriages to win housing. Of the 354 cases, sham address registrations accounted for 334, or 94.4%.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Real Estate Supervision Task Force under the Office for Government Policy Coordination said on the 10th that a joint inspection of 43 major complexes and about 25,000 homes supplied from July last year through March this year uncovered 354 suspected cases of fraudulent housing applications. The inspection covered all complexes supplying homes in regulated areas, including Seoul, as well as popular complexes in other regions. All cases uncovered will be referred for investigation.
After a series of cases in which applicants won housing based on subscription scores that did not match their actual living arrangements, the inspection focused on confirming whether dependent family members actually lived with the applicants. Inspectors reviewed parents’ use of medical facilities, children’s places of work, and household members’ jeonse and monthly-rent records, among other things.
The number of on-site inspectors was increased from 8 to 15, and the inspection period for each complex was extended from one day to 3–5 days. Compared with the first half of last year, when about 28,000 homes were inspected and 252 cases uncovered, fewer homes were inspected this time, yet more cases were found.
The most common type of violation was sham address registration. Applicants changed their registered address to a home, commercial property, factory, warehouse, motel or other property where they did not actually live, in order to qualify as a resident of the area or a member of a household with no home, or to increase their dependent-family score.
To be recognized as dependent family members, direct ascendants must have lived with the applicant for at least three years, and direct descendants aged 30 or older for at least one year.
Eighteen cases of falsely presenting oneself as unmarried were uncovered. In these cases, applicants married a homeowner and raised children together but did not register the marriage in order to qualify for housing as people with no home.
One case each of trading housing application eligibility and sham resignation was also identified. In eligibility trading, an applicant conspires with an intermediary, hands over financial certificates and passwords, has an application and contract handled on their behalf, and exchanges a fee. A sham resignation involves someone falsely quitting a job and then applying for housing to meet the low-income requirement.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to continue investigating the forgery of documents related to housing application eligibility, including those concerning marriage, pregnancy and disability. 
Those found to have submitted a fraudulent housing application may face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won, as well as measures including contract cancellation, recovery of the home, forfeiture of the contract deposit and a 10-year restriction on housing application eligibility. The contract deposit subject to forfeiture is 10% of the sale price.
Choi Byeong-gil, director of the Housing Fund Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, “We will do everything in our power to eradicate fraudulent housing applications and create a fair housing application market,” adding, “Although no such cases were uncovered in this inspection, we will continue to focus our investigations on forged documents related to housing application eligibility, including those concerning marriage, pregnancy and disability.”
[email protected] Choi Ga-young Reporter