Yongin City Strengthens Inspections to Prevent Damage from Local Housing Cooperatives

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Choi Ki-ho] Yongin City announced on the 23rd that it will strengthen inspections of operational conditions for 13 local housing cooperatives in the city that are currently in the membership recruitment phase or proceeding with projects after receiving establishment approval.

This inspection is being conducted to prevent citizen damage caused by false or exaggerated advertisements or mismanagement of local housing cooperatives, with special inspections to be conducted twice—in the first and second half of the year. The first half inspection is scheduled to be carried out in April.

The inspection targets are local housing cooperatives that are in the membership recruitment phase or proceeding with projects after establishment approval, totaling 13 cooperatives: 8 in Cheoin-gu, 4 in Giheung-gu, and 1 in Suji-gu.

In this inspection, the city will focus on checking compliance with regulations regarding membership recruitment advertisements, cooperative fund management, contract specifications, performance reporting, and disclosure of information.

The city plans to take strong administrative action against legal violations such as posting illegal banners with false or exaggerated advertisements.

The city also notes the increasing number of damage cases due to prolonged project timelines. It plans to request the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to amend the Local Housing Cooperative Act to strengthen the land use rights acquisition ratio from 50% to 75% during the membership recruitment stage and to require annual financial audits to enhance business transparency.

Since last year, the city has been operating a "permanent counseling service" to prevent citizen damage caused by local housing cooperatives and has implemented "measures to prevent damage from local housing cooperatives," including strengthening crackdowns on false and exaggerated advertisements.

This year, the city is redesigning its website to post relevant information for many citizens to view, and plans to create and distribute promotional brochures that include specific damage cases to provide guidance on precautions when joining local housing cooperatives.

Citizens can access information about local housing cooperative projects in the city through the city's website (HOME>Information by Category>Urban>Housing/Construction>Local Housing Cooperatives).

Local housing cooperatives operate differently from the condominium sales method in that members participate as the main subject of housing construction projects, so the success or failure of the project is directly linked to member responsibility.

The reality is that cases of people being deceived by exaggerated cooperative advertisements and suffering damage by joining local housing cooperatives without properly verifying project details are increasing nationwide.

A city official stated, "We will strengthen inspections to ensure that local housing cooperatives provide accurate information to applicants and concurrently make active efforts in necessary institutional improvements to do our best in protecting citizens' residential stability and property rights."