Paldal-gu Launches Crackdown on Illegal Buildings

Paldal-gu in Suwon announced on the 10th that it will conduct a comprehensive investigation into 290 altered structures identified through aerial photography analysis dated January 22, imposing enforcement fines on illegal buildings until voluntary dismantling, criminal referral, or voluntary remediation is completed.

The district plans to strengthen legal compliance awareness among building owners through strict law enforcement, including imposing the surcharge once annually to create economic disadvantages, thereby establishing proper construction order.

Enforcement officials from the district's Building and Construction Division will conduct on-site inspections to carefully examine the location, owner, structure, number of floors, area, and purpose of altered buildings based on data from aerial survey records. When violations of the Building Act are discovered, the buildings are classified as violation structures, and inspection notices are issued on-site to encourage voluntary remediation.

While voluntary remediation will be encouraged, if building owners continue to refuse compliance with remediation orders, the district will proceed with criminal referral and impose enforcement fines.

However, ancillary facilities attached to buildings that do not cause damage to neighbors and are below a certain scale—including shade screens, rainwater gutters, rain shelters, kimchi jar storage stands, and coal storage structures—as well as non-building structures such as foundation works, stockpiled materials, and agricultural vinyl greenhouses, and 9 urban and drainage environmental improvement zones will be excluded from this crackdown.

A district official stated, "Last year we investigated 388 altered structures identified through aerial surveys, detected 41 violation buildings, and took administrative action. However, as violations continue to occur and have not decreased, we believe this reflects the weak legal compliance awareness among building owners," and appealed for residents' cooperation.