#A and B conspired to apply for dwellings in Incheon as prospective newlyweds under the special supply for newlyweds and won the lottery. Then, they filed a lawsuit to restore their single status after signing a contract and registering their marriage. A and B stated that they only registered their marriage for the newlywed application, without any discussion of marriage or joint living, and filed for confirmation of marriage invalidity, correcting the marriage certificate.
In the second half of last year, 390 cases of fraudulent applications were detected in major residential complexes in the metropolitan area. As the effectiveness of investigations into false residence registration increased, the number of detected fraudulent applications increased more than threefold in six months.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 29th that a total of 390 cases of disruptions to the supply order were detected in housing application and supply inspections at 40 locations (approximately 26,000 units) including major residential complexes in the metropolitan area for the second half of last year and that it referred the cases to the Korean National Police Agency for investigation.
The detected cases took various forms, primarily centered around false residence registration of oneself and direct relatives, including fraudulent marriages and divorces, manipulation of application qualifications, and illegal resale.
A total of 243 cases of fraudulent applications using false direct relative registration to obtain family points for the points system or qualifications for elderly parents special supply were detected.
141 cases of applicants' false residence registration were also detected. This involved registering a false address to qualify as a resident of the area or as a member of a housing-less household. They registered their residence at dwellings, commercial buildings, factories, warehouses, motels, etc., while not actually residing in the area.
The Ministry detected two cases of fraudulent applications where individuals falsely registered their marriage to win the newlywed special supply or falsely divorced a spouse who owned dwellings to increase application points. There were also two cases involving forgery of marriage certificates or collusion with a construction company to manipulate application qualifications.
Two cases were detected where they received a premium during the restriction period on resale and later entered into a sales contract after the restriction period had expired.
In particular, to effectively assess the false residence registration of direct relatives during this inspection, the Ministry collected 'medical insurance benefit details,' resulting in more than three times the number of detected cases. This information includes the names and contact details of medical facilities such as hospitals and pharmacies, making it possible to verify actual residences.
The number of detected fraudulent applications was 218 and 154 in the first and second halves of 2023, respectively, while 127 cases were detected in the first half of last year.
Those found to have committed fraudulent applications will be subject to criminal penalties (up to three years in prison or fines of up to 30 million won) and contract cancellations (recovery of dwellings) and restrictions on applications for ten years once the housing law violations are confirmed.
Jeong Soo-ho, head of the housing fund at the Ministry, noted, 'In the future, we plan to make the submission of health insurance benefit details mandatory for direct relatives and direct descendants over 30 years old, establishing a more rigorous verification system for fraudulent applications across all residential complexes' and urged individuals to be particularly cautious to avoid the disadvantages of criminal penalties, contract cancellations, and application restrictions due to fraudulent applications.