LH attended only 1 of 10 hearings; acceptance rate stands at zero

'A mediation proposal without the parties present is worthless,' lawmaker says

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Gwang-jae [Provided by lawmaker's office]
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Gwang-jae [Provided by lawmaker's office]

Lee Gwang-jae, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker representing Hanam-gap in Gyeonggi Province, said Thursday he had introduced a bill to strengthen the effectiveness of the rental housing dispute mediation system under the Special Act on Private Rental Housing.

The bill would give disputing parties the right to appear before mediation committees and present their views. It would also introduce a deemed-acceptance provision: if a party fails to notify the committee of whether it accepts a mediation proposal within 30 days of receiving it, the proposal would be considered accepted.

The legislation follows data obtained by Lee's office from Korea Land and Housing Corporation showing that 13 complexes nationwide have filed for mediation with the Rental Housing Dispute Mediation Committee over the conversion price of public rental housing to pre-sale units — yet the corporation has not accepted a single mediation proposal.

Particularly striking, the corporation attended only one of the 10 committee hearings held between May 2020 and April this year, despite being a party to every dispute.

Under current law, at least one executive or employee of Korea Land and Housing Corporation or a local public corporation must sit on the mediation committee. However, enforcement regulations apply disqualification, challenge and recusal rules to committee members, making it effectively impossible for a corporation employee to participate as a member in cases where the corporation is itself a party.

An analysis of corporation data by Lee's office confirmed that no corporation employee sat as a committee member in any of the 13 hearings. Even in areas such as Hanam, where a corporation employee had been appointed to the committee, that employee was barred from participating in hearings involving the corporation as a party — a structural contradiction built into the system, with appointment rules on one side and exclusion rules on the other.

In such cases, the corporation should at minimum be able to appear as a party and explain its position, but current law provides no procedure for parties to attend hearings or present their views. Because attendance has been left entirely to the parties' discretion and the committee's judgment, mediation proposals have repeatedly been drafted without the parties present and, ultimately, rejected.

The bill would establish a new provision allowing disputing parties to appear before the committee, present their views and submit materials before a mediation proposal is drafted. Exceptions — such as when a party explicitly waives the opportunity — would be set out by presidential decree.

In addition, the bill would treat a party's failure to respond within 30 days of receiving a mediation proposal as acceptance. The amended law would take effect six months after promulgation, and the provisions on attendance and the right to present views would apply to disputes already under way at the time of enactment.

"If the parties are not in the room, a mediation proposal is just a piece of paper," Lee said. "If sitting as a committee member is not possible, there should at least be a door open for them to come in as a party and explain their position. We urgently need to examine how dispute mediation committees are operating across the country and find ways to make the law work in practice. I will see this through to ensure that the Rental Housing Dispute Mediation Committee becomes a genuinely effective body for resolving conflicts between public institutions and tenants."


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