Jeonse Fraud Minimum Guarantee, November 2026: One-Third Is the Floor, Not the Payout

On 6 October 2026 Korea's State Council approved an amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims and Housing Stability, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the new rules take effect on 13 November 2026. From that date, a decided jeonse fraud victim whose recovery after the auction or public sale falls short of one-third of the lease deposit can have the shortfall paid. The headline number is one-third, but it marks the least a victim ends up holding, not the amount the state hands over.

The ministry's notice on Korea.kr, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport policy news of 6 October 2026 sets out how the decree computes the payment. The statute behind it is Act No. 21634 of 12 May 2026, whose statement of reasons sits on the National Law Information Center list of enactment and amendment reasons for the Special Act. This piece follows the one-third figure through both, and through the article that decides who counts as a victim.

The Scene

A tenant paid a jeonse deposit of 150 million won. The landlord stopped returning deposits, the house went to auction, and when it closed the tenant had 20 million won from the auction distribution and 10 million won of auction surplus: 30 million won back. Reading “one-third guaranteed”, the tenant expects one-third of the deposit, 50 million won, from the state on top, which would bring the total to 80 million won. The ministry's own worked example uses exactly these figures and pays 20 million won.

What the Rule Actually Says

The Act. Act No. 21634 amended the Special Act on 12 May 2026. Its statement of reasons lists fourteen items, and the minimum guarantee is the ninth, item ja. It reads in full:

"자. 전세사기피해자가 대항력 또는 우선변제권을 행사하여 받은 금액 등의 총합이 최소보장금에 미치지 못할 경우 그 부족분을 지원하는 ‘최소보장 제도’를 도입하고, 최소보장금의 선지급, 선지급금 등의 반납 절차, 관련 조사 및 정보의 수집ㆍ활용 근거 등을 신설함(제25조의9부터 제25조의12까지 신설).", item ja: a minimum guarantee system is introduced that supports the shortfall where the total of the amounts a jeonse fraud victim received by exercising the right to assert the lease against third parties or the preferential repayment right, among others, falls short of the minimum guarantee amount; and grounds are newly created for advance payment of the minimum guarantee amount, a procedure for returning advance payments and similar sums, and related investigation and the collection and use of information (Articles 25-9 to 25-12, newly inserted).

The comparison is between a total and a floor, and the state supports the shortfall between them. The sentence names the minimum guarantee amount without fixing its size; that number comes from the ministry's account of the decree.

The National Law Information Center heads the entry for Act No. 21634 with an effective date of 12 May 2026, the day of promulgation, while the ministry dates the minimum guarantee from 13 November 2026. A later start for Articles 25-9 to 25-12 would sit in the Act's Addenda, which were not among the texts read here, so the 13 November date rests on the ministry's notice.

The decree. The ministry's notice gives the formula in two names that are easy to merge. The minimum guarantee amount is an amount equal to one-third of the lease deposit. The minimum support amount is what is actually paid: the minimum guarantee amount minus four items. Those four are the money received by exercising the right to assert the lease against third parties or the preferential repayment right; the money repaid through the deposit-return claim; the auction surplus; and rent support. Each lowers the payment won for won.

A second track, advance payment followed by settlement, covers tenants who signed with someone who had no authority to lease, with trust fraud named as the example. The advance is paid before the auction or other disposal ends. It starts from the same minimum guarantee amount and deducts items such as the money repaid through the deposit-return claim and the rent support paid before the advance, and it can be settled afterwards against amounts recovered later.

The ministry's shorter press release, reproduced in the KDI Economic Information and Education Center copy of the ministry's 6 October 2026 press release, describes the target as damage, after the auction or public sale ends, that falls short of one-third of the lease deposit. That sounds like a rule about the size of the loss. The policy notice puts the test on the other side of the ledger: the amount recovered must fall short of one-third. A tenant who lost two-thirds of the deposit or less has recovered at least one-third, and gets no top-up.

Article 3: who is a victim. Only a decided victim can use any of this. The National Law Information Center shows Article 3 in the version of the Act in force from 2 October 2026, labelled Act No. 21490 of 24 March 2026. It has two paragraphs. Paragraph (1) opens with a requirement and a proviso:

"제14조에 따라 전세사기피해자로 결정받고자 하는 임차인(자연인에 한정한다. 이하 같다)은 다음 각 호의 요건을 모두 갖추어야 한다. 다만, 경매 또는 공매 절차가 완료된 임차인의 경우에는 제1호 및 제3호의 요건은 제외한다.", Article 3(1): a tenant who seeks a decision as a jeonse fraud victim under Article 14, limited to natural persons, must meet all of the requirements in the following subparagraphs; provided that, for a tenant whose auction or public sale procedure has been completed, the requirements in subparagraphs 1 and 3 are excluded. The National Law Information Center text of Article 3 of the Jeonse Fraud Victims Act marks that paragraph as amended on 10 September 2024.

There are four subparagraphs. Subparagraph 1 requires delivery of the house and resident registration under Article 3 of the Housing Lease Protection Act, with the moving-in report treated as the registration, plus a fixed date on the lease contract; a registered leasehold or a jeonse right also qualifies. Subparagraph 2 caps the deposit:

"2. 임차인의 임차보증금이 5억원 이하일 것. 다만, 임차보증금의 상한액은 제6조에 따른 전세사기피해지원위원회가 시ㆍ도별 여건 및 피해자의 여건 등을 고려하여 2억원의 범위에서 상향 조정할 수 있다.", the tenant's lease deposit must be 500 million won or less; provided that the jeonse fraud victim support committee under Article 6 may raise the cap by up to 200 million won, having regard to conditions in each city or province and the victims' circumstances.

Subparagraph 3 requires a triggering event, such as the landlord's bankruptcy or rehabilitation, the start of an auction or public sale, including a seizure for unpaid taxes, or the tenant obtaining an enforcement title, so that two or more tenants have suffered, or are expected to suffer, unpaid deposits. Subparagraph 4 requires substantial reason to suspect the landlord intended not to return the deposit, citing examples such as an investigation, deception, or a transfer of the house to someone unable to repay.

The proviso matters most here, because the top-up is claimed after the auction is over. A tenant whose auction has ended is spared subparagraphs 1 and 3 but must still meet subparagraphs 2 and 4: the deposit cap and the suspected intent. Paragraph (2) removes three groups altogether; they are set out under Where This Doesn't Apply.

The Numbers

Start with the ministry's example. A deposit of 150 million won gives a minimum guarantee amount of 50 million won, one-third of the deposit. The tenant recovered 20 million won through the auction distribution and 10 million won of auction surplus, 30 million won in total. The minimum support amount is the difference, 20 million won, and the tenant ends at 50 million won. The headline reading, one-third paid on top of what was recovered, would have produced 80 million won.

The arithmetic generalises. For that 150 million won deposit, the payment falls one won for every won recovered under the four deducted items. With nothing recovered, the state pays the full 50 million won. With 30 million won recovered, it pays 20 million won. At 50 million won recovered, or anything above that, the payment is zero.

The floor scales with the deposit. A 300 million won deposit has a floor of 100 million won. At the Article 3 cap of 500 million won, the floor is about 166.7 million won; with the committee's full 200 million won raise, a 700 million won deposit would carry a floor of about 233.3 million won. Above the applicable cap there is no victim decision and so no floor.

The clock has its own numbers. The Korea Land and Housing Corporation, to which the decree entrusts payment and settlement, must decide within 90 days of receiving an application, extendable once by up to 30 days, so the longest wait is 120 days. On an application filed on 13 November 2026, that runs to about 11 February 2027, or about 13 March 2027 with the extension. An applicant has 30 days from the notice to object. Money later recovered must be reported and returned; failing to return it in time, among other breaches, draws a fine of up to 30 million won, scaled by the number of violations.

The Act's period of validity was extended to 31 May 2027, and a tenant can apply for a victim decision until then, 199 days after the minimum guarantee starts. And a tenant who first signs a lease on or after 1 June 2025 is outside the Act, according to the ministry's notice of 2 May 2025 on Korea.kr, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport policy news on the two-year extension of victim decision applications.

Where This Doesn't Apply

Tenants removed by Article 3(2). Paragraph (2) opens: "다음 각 호의 어느 하나에 해당하는 경우는 제1항의 적용대상에서 제외한다.", any case falling under one of the following subparagraphs is excluded from paragraph (1). It has three subparagraphs. First, a tenant who took out a deposit-return guarantee or insurance, or whose landlord took out a deposit-return guarantee, so that the whole deposit can be returned to the tenant. Second, a tenant whose entire deposit falls within the portion of a deposit that qualifies for top-priority repayment under Article 8(1) of the Housing Lease Protection Act. Third:

"3. 임차인이 「주택임대차보호법」에 따라 대항력 또는 우선변제권 행사를 통하여 보증금 전액을 자력으로 회수할 수 있다고 판단되는 경우", where the tenant is judged able to recover the full deposit on their own by exercising the right to assert the lease against third parties or the preferential repayment right under the Housing Lease Protection Act. None of these three groups can reach the minimum guarantee, because none of them can be decided a victim.

Victims who already hold one-third. A decided victim whose recovery under the four items reaches one-third of the deposit gets nothing from the minimum guarantee. It is a floor, not compensation for the rest of the loss.

Leases signed from 1 June 2025. The ministry's 2025 notice puts tenants who first sign a lease on or after that date outside the Act, and tells them to check the rights shown on the property register when they sign.

Companies and large deposits. Article 3(1) is limited to natural persons, and the deposit has to sit within the 500 million won cap or a higher cap the committee has set.

Advance payment. The pay-first track belongs to tenants who signed with someone without authority to lease. Other victims wait for the auction or disposal to finish and then claim.

Foreign tenants. Article 3(1), subparagraph 1, is written around resident registration and the moving-in report. How a foreign resident's registration steps map onto that wording is a question for a different statute that none of the texts read here covers; The Seoul Footnote on the fifteen-day report after moving house in Korea is a place to start. The proviso to Article 3(1) lifts subparagraph 1 once the auction is complete, but that settles only the victim decision. Article 25-9, which was not read, carries the top-up's own conditions; an unverified reproduction of it outside the National Law Information Center limits the payment to Korean nationals and lists further bars. A foreign victim should not count on the top-up until the support centre confirms it against your documents.

What Would Invalidate This

Three gaps remain. Neither Articles 25-9 to 25-12 nor the amended decree was read; the one-third figure, the four deductions and the deadlines come from the ministry's account, and Article 25-9's own bars, including the reported nationality limit, are unconfirmed. The Addenda of Act No. 21634 were not read either, so whether a victim whose auction ended before 13 November 2026 can claim is unconfirmed here; if the Addenda limit the new articles to later auctions, the tenant in The Scene may be outside them. And the 1 June 2025 line comes from the ministry's 2025 notice; a later amendment could have moved it, although none of the fourteen items in the statement of reasons for Act No. 21634 deals with it.

If You Are Actually in This Situation

1. Confirm the victim decision. Everything runs through the decision under Article 14. If there is none yet, the window to apply under the extended Act closes on 31 May 2027.

2. Work out the floor yourself. Take one-third of the deposit. Subtract what came back through the tenant's rights at auction or public sale, anything repaid on the deposit-return claim, the auction surplus, and rent support. A positive result is the likely minimum support amount; zero or less means no top-up.

3. File at the right moment. If you asked for the house to be bought, the claim opens once the auction surplus has been calculated; otherwise, once disposal of the house is complete. Advance payment must be claimed before the Korea Land and Housing Corporation's purchase, or the disposal, is complete.

4. Gather the documents. The ministry's list includes the victim decision letter, a copy of the lease contract, an abstract of the resident registration record, the certificate of all registered matters for the house, the distribution table or allocation statement, and documents on any repayment of the deposit-return claim.

5. Track the decision. Expect an answer within 90 days, or 120 days if the one extension is used. Count 30 days from the notice as the last day to object.

6. Report later recoveries. If more of the deposit comes back after payment, report it and return what is due; the fines for not returning it run up to 30 million won.

Where to ask. The ministry's notice lists its Jeonse Fraud Victim Support Team, Victim Support Division, at 044-201-5234. Act No. 21634 renames the Jeonse Damage Support Centre as the Jeonse Damage and Prevention Support Centre. For background on tenant rights, see The Seoul Footnote on Korean tenant protection rules.

This article explains public rules and is not legal advice. For a decision on a particular case, consult the support centre or a qualified lawyer.