Too high bonus for head of reconstruction associations causes controversy

Black banners with yellow letters hung all over Raemian One Bailey in southern Seoul’s Banpo-dong, where residents started moving in last August, writing, “Shame on yes-man representatives,” “Out of representatives’ pocket,” and “Association members are not pushovers.”

According to insiders of the property maintenance industry, the association of reconstruction for this apartment complex decided to present a proposal to pay the association’s leader a bonus of one billion won at a general meeting for dissolution scheduled this Wednesday, asking its members to submit a written resolution letter. In response, some association members strongly opposed offering the head such a high bonus payment.

With regeneration projects underway on apartment complex sites, their associations pay their head and senior members monthly pay and expenses for activity. However, they usually come under fire for paying a bonus fee that is too high. However, association leadership has a different point of view on this issue. Kim Seok-joong, head of the association of One Bailey, argued that he only requested the bonus as a reward for contributing to a profit of 150 billion won made out of avoidance of presale price capping, sale of arcade units and negotiations on construction cost, adding that each association member will also receive 15 million won afterward.

Other apartment complexes also face the same issue of settling a bonus for their association leaders. Another example is Pyeongchon ELPROUD, which has 2,739 units built around Bisan Elementary School in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province. It was met with a backlash from its association members when its association proposed to pay its leader five billion won in bonus this February, which later fell through at the end. By contrast, in a general assembly last June, ePyeonhansesang Cheonggye Central Foret, which started move-in in November 2021 after regenerated from Yongdu District 5 in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, decided to provide 24 association leaders with a total of 3.29 billion won with the head of its association and six senior members getting paid 1.2 billion won and 120 million won, respectively.


이축복 bless@donga.com