“What Did the Residents Do to Deserve This?”... A Man Has Been Living in a Tent in a Parking Lot for 4 Years; District Office Also Says “There’s Nothing We Can Do” [What Do You Think?]

[Financial News] Residents of a villa in Gangnam, Seoul, are reportedly having difficulty because a man has been living in a tent in the parking lot for four years. He has built walls out of wastepaper and cardboard in one corner of the piloti-style parking area and effectively set up a home there. The district office with jurisdiction and the police are reportedly unable to take compulsory action.
JTBC’s Scandal Supervisor recently reported that it had received a tip that a man had been living since 2022 in the ground-floor parking lot of a villa in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The tip came from A, the son-in-law of a man who rents out a unit on the villa’s fourth floor. According to A, the building has a piloti-style design, with parking on the first floor and a total of nine households living on the floors above.
The man has settled in one corner of the ground-floor parking lot. The problem is that the space is crammed with household belongings, including walls made by stacking wastepaper and cardboard, a tent and a makeshift bed, as well as various appliances such as a rice cooker and microwave.
It is difficult even to get in and out of the building, let alone park, and residents grew increasingly upset after learning that the electricity used for the appliances was reportedly being drawn from the villa’s shared power supply. The residents eventually refused to pay the shared electricity bill, having had enough, and the power supply is now reportedly cut off.
One tenant said, “In the summer, mosquito coils are burned and several fans are left running,” adding, “I don’t know when a fire might break out, so I’m even looking into moving.” Another tenant also complained about the inconvenience, saying, “I moved here because of the parking, but the tenants are actually fighting among themselves.”
The villa’s parking lot can normally accommodate seven to eight cars, but because of the man’s belongings, only around three to four cars can park there now. Last month, tipster A tried to speak with him directly, asking him to remove his belongings because of the shortage of parking spaces and sanitation concerns.

The man claimed that he used to run a moving company and had received permission from the owners at the time to store his belongings there before the building was built. When A pointed out that none of the current owners had given him permission, the man kept repeating, “I’ll clear it up when I feel a little better” and “I have nothing to say except that I’m sorry.”
Even more surprisingly, the man’s mother lives in the same villa. She told the production crew, “Due to personal circumstances, a restraining order involving my son was issued, and we came to live apart,” adding, “I’ve told my son countless times to remove his belongings, but he won’t listen.”
A and the residents eventually asked the relevant agencies, including Gangnam-gu Office and the police, for help. An office official replied, “We cannot dispose of or forcibly remove privately owned items on private property,” and the police gave the same response.
A fire service official also said, “The items are not piled up in an evacuation route, so this does not violate fire safety laws,” adding, “Under current law, the fire service has no authority to take action.” However, an office official told Scandal Supervisor, “We already reviewed the complaint last month and are considering how to handle it,” adding, “We’ll take action as soon as possible.”
[email protected] Kim Hee-sun Reporter