With the development of social life, people’s lifestyle and residential culture are also changing.
In the past when demand for housing was low and large families were common, most of residences were detached houses and there was no particular housin...
With the development of social life, people’s lifestyle and residential culture are also changing.
In the past when demand for housing was low and large families were common, most of residences were detached houses and there was no particular housing problem. With industrial development and the change of family consciousness in a way of pursuing convenience and economic efficiency, however, the form of residence began to change to collective buildings(aggregate buildings). The traditional Civil Code and the Registration of Real Estate Act based on the Civil Code began to show their limitations in regulating aggregate buildings, and as a result, 'the Act on the Ownership and Management of Aggregate Buildings’ (referred to as "the Act on Aggregate Buildings" hereinafter) was established and enacted in 1984 for protecting division owners of aggregate buildings and coordinating their interests in their communal life.
Because aggregate buildings were being constructed during that period, people’s concern was focused mainly on the independence and ownership of buildings, and less on the independence and ownership of the lands.
As a result, now a number of unexpected problems are arising, and one of them is the Use of a Lot(the site right) of aggregate buildings. When aggregate buildings were constructed, buyers (division owners) were concerned over the floor area of the buildings, and were indifferent to the lot area.
However, with the rapid progress of urbanization, the sites of aggregate buildings, which had been located in suburban areas when they were constructed, came to be situated in urban centers, and even fueled by real estate speculation, the land price of aggregate buildings soared up high. Accordingly, the division owners of the buildings came to take interest in the shared part of the sites, and furthermore, as the necessity of reconstruction was raised for old buildings, they realized again the value of the sites. It was because if a building is reconstructed, the site is not more an object of common use but represents each owner’s share, and the floor area of the building is changed according to the lot area. Consequently, land is closely connected to the increase or decrease of each owner’s property. From now on, buildings to be reconstructed in urban areas will increase further and building owners’ interest in their land share will grow higher. Thus, there should be legal consideration on the conversion of the right to use site before reconstruction into ownership with reconstruction.
Thus, the present study started from the assumption that the site right of aggregate buildings is an ownership of immovable. Accordingly, this study analyzes general theories related to the site right of aggregate buildings(Part II), examines problems in registration and legal provisions related to the independence and several ownership of site right for the division ownership of aggregate buildings, and determines the relation between buildings and their sites through previous discussions in the history of the Civil Code(Part III).. Furthermore, this study purposes to inquire into problems in the process that the site right is established into ownership in the reconstruction of aggregate buildings and in the perception of several ownership for land in the site right registration system, and to find legislative solutions for the problems(Part IV).