The earthquakes in Gyeongju and Pohang, in 2016 and 2017, respectively, have confirmed that Korea is no longer safe from earthquakes. The Building Act has been thus amended in regard to its provisions for requiring disclosure of Seismic Capacity of Buildings as referred to under Article 48-3 of the Act to include the buildings as follows (enforced on December 26, 2017): a building with at least 2 floors (as opposed to the previous 16); a building, the floor area of which is at least 200 square meters (as opposed to previous 5,000).

However, the buildings that did not reflect such seismic capacity design prior to the enforcement of the amended law are not subject to the current provisions, and the law is practically failing in achieving its amendment purpose which was to protect the safety of the people.

Therefore, this proposal seeks to establish a legal basis for compelling buildings that were approved prior to enforcement of current law to examine their seismic capacity and to take reinforcement measures, if deemed so necessary for public safety (such as in earthquake areas); and to allow the local or national government to provide partial/entire subsidies for costs incurred from such examinations/measures.

Details

A. Require heads of si/gun/gu to designate buildings that shall be subject to seismic capacity examination; and to notify the owner of such buildings of the necessity of such examination and of government support (newly insert Article 48-4)

B. Require the owner of buildings that are subject to seismic capacity examinations to conduct the examination and report the results to head of si/gun/gu within two years of the notification of designation (newly insert Article 48-5, paragraph 1)

C. Allow the national or local government to provide partial or entire subsidies to cover the necessary cost for seismic capacity examination (newly insert Article 48-5, paragraph 2)

D. Allow heads of si/gun/gu to compel the owner of a building to execute seismic capacity reinforcement if deemed urgently necessary for public safety based on the results of the seismic capacity examination (newly insert Article 48-6)

E. To compel implementation, allow imposition of administrative fines when seismic capacity examination results reporting duties are violated; allow imposition of statutory fines of up to thirty million won when seismic capacity examination duties are violated; allow imposition of statutory fines of up to fifty million won when seismic capacity examination duties are violated (newly insert Article 111, subparagraph 5-2; Article 112; Article 114, paragraph 1, subparagraph 6; Article 114, paragraph 2, subparagraph 5-2)

The owner of a building subject to seismic capacity examination shall execute a seismic capacity examination as specified under Presidential Decree within two years of the notification that the building was designated as subject to the examination. The examination shall be carried out by business entities, institutions or organizations (hereafter “seismic capacity examination company”) with relevant expert personnel as specified under an Ordinance of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. (Article 48-5, paragraph 1)
The owner of a building subject to seismic capacity reinforcement according to the notification of result of an examination under paragraph 1 shall execute the seismic capacity reinforcement as specified under Presidential Decree, and report the result to the head of si/gun/gu. (Article 48-6, paragraph 2)