Reorganization of Building Safety Management Legislation

In Korea, industrialization and urbanization rapidly advanced around the 1970s due to economic development and high growth. As a result, various facilities such as major infrastructure and high-rise buildings began to be constructed. In this context, numerous fatal accidents caused by inadequate facility safety management raised significant awareness in Korean society, which led to the establishment of the 'Special Act on the Safety Control and Maintenance of Establishments' in 1995. This law has undergone several revisions and continues to play a central role in Korea's facility safety legislation even after 30 years. Recently, the 'Act on the Management of Buildings' which includes building safety management, was enacted and came into effect on May 1, 2020, and the 'Multi-Family Housing Management Act', which includes multi-family housing safety management, was enacted and came into effect on August 12, 2016. With the enactment of these laws in addition to the Special Act on the Safety Control and Maintenance of Establishments, beneficiaries have raised concerns about overlapping safety management obligations and the burden of double costs. Furthermore, beneficiaries also face difficulties in clearly understanding which obligations they must fulfill under which law, due to the multiple laws they must comply with. This paper proposes solutions to address the issue of complex and overlapping legal applications and to reorganize the legal framework in a systematic and efficient manner. First, it proposes transferring the building safety management section from the Special Act on the Safety Control and Maintenance of Establishments to the Act on the Management of Buildings. As a second option, it suggests transferring the multi-family housing safety management section from the Special Act on the Safety Control and Maintenance of Establishments to the Act on the Multi-Family Housing Management Act. The enactment and implementation of laws such as the Act on the Management of Buildings and Multi-Family Housing Management Act, which independently regulate the safety management of buildings or multi-family housing, is already in place. Therefore, there is no need for parallel and redundant regulation between the Special Act on the Safety Control and Maintenance of Establishments and the Act on the Management of Buildings. Instead, it is necessary to unify the regulation under either the Act on the Management of Buildings or Multi-Family Housing Management Act. Safety management of buildings or multi-family housing, unlike infrastructure safety management, is primarily handled autonomously by the owner or manager using their own resources. Therefore, public intervention for safety needs to be approached differently, focusing on a supportive or supervisory role to ensure public safety. If the Act on the Management of Buildings and Multi-Family Housing Management Act comprehensively regulates the management of buildings or multi-family housing throughout their entire life cycle, including safety management, it would allow for the integrated and organic regulation and management of the entire life cycle of the building, such as the establishment of related plans, permits and approvals, construction completion, safety management, maintenance, and information management systems. This would ultimately improve the efficiency of building management.