Being recognized as a jeonse fraud victim does not return your deposit for you

When tenants in the same building all fail to get their deposits back and the building goes to auction, many first think of applying for recognition as a jeonse fraud victim (전세사기피해자 결정). Recognition is certainly an important starting point. But unless you distinguish what it does and does not do for you, you may miss the deadlines in the procedures that actually get you your money.

What recognition opens up

If you are recognized as a victim under the Special Act on Support for Victims of Jeonse Fraud and Housing Stability, you can receive support such as applications for deferral and suspension of auction, a priority purchase right, public rental housing and financial support. On the victim's application, the court may withhold setting a sale date or defer or suspend the auction, for a period of up to 1 year (Article 17). You can also provide security by the sale date and declare that you will buy with priority at the same price as the highest bid (Article 20).

Requirements and who is covered

You must have opposability (대항력) and a fixed-date stamp (확정일자), the deposit must be 500 million won or less (which the committee may raise within a range of 200 million won), damage must have occurred or be expected to occur to multiple tenants, and there must be substantial reason to suspect that the landlord intended not to return the deposits (Article 3). If you can get the full amount back through deposit return insurance, or recover it in full through first-priority repayment (최우선변제) or similar, you are not covered.

The supplementary provisions of the May 20, 2025 amendment apply the Act to tenants who first entered into a lease before May 31, 2025. If you renewed or signed a new lease, first check the date of your original contract. If you first signed after that date, you must recover through ordinary civil procedures.

The money comes through civil procedures

Being recognized as a victim does not mean the state pays your deposit on the landlord's behalf. Recovering the deposit still happens through civil procedures: registration of leasehold (임차권등기), a lawsuit for return of the deposit and distribution from the auction. In an auction, you must file a demand for distribution by the deadline set by the court to receive a distribution, and the amount you can receive is determined by your ranking in the register, your fixed date and any unpaid taxes.

If you object to the victim recognition decision, you must file an objection with the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport within 30 days of receiving the decision (Article 15). The recognition procedure and the auction procedure do not wait for each other. Please write the deadlines of both procedures on a single sheet so that you don't miss the deadline for demanding distribution while waiting for the recognition decision, or move your resident registration out before registering your leasehold because you rushed to move.

Who can be held responsible

If the landlord hid from the start that they were unable to return the deposit and signed the contract anyway, you can consider filing a fraud complaint. With the December 23, 2025 amendment, the statutory penalty for fraud became imprisonment for up to 20 years or a fine of up to 50 million won (Article 347 of the Criminal Act). However, a compensation order in a criminal trial is not granted unless the amount of damage is specific, so it is safer to prepare a separate civil claim.

If the licensed real estate agent misexplained the senior rights, you can claim damages, and you may also be able to receive payment from the mutual aid fund or surety insurance the agent has joined. Keep in mind that if there were circumstances you could have checked yourself, the amount may be reduced by comparative negligence.