Hello, this is Attorney Bae Ki-hyung of Cheongchul Law Firm.

In the large-scale defect repair cost lawsuits that apartment councils of occupants' representatives have recently been filing against developers and contractors, new issues have emerged as 'hot potatoes' alongside traditional defects such as cracks and water leakage. These are the 'fire door performance defect' and 'inter-floor noise' issues.

Because these two defects can apply uniformly to hundreds or thousands of units within a complex, once they are recognized as defects, the cost of full replacement across the complex or enormous damages are assessed, shifting the scale of the lawsuit by billions of won. As a result, the appraisal proceedings and legal battles between the residents and the contractor are fiercer than ever.

Today, I will explain, through Supreme Court precedent and trends in practice, whether the cost of full fire door replacement is recognized and what legal standards govern inter-floor noise defects, the two most sharply contested issues in recent apartment defect litigation.

1. Substandard Fire Door Performance: Remove Only the Door Leaf, or Replace Everything?

The entrance doors and similar doors of each apartment unit must satisfy the 'Class A fire door (갑종방화문)' standards (smoke-control and flame-barrier/fire-resistance performance under KS F 2846, etc.), which require them to prevent the spread of fire and block smoke. Failure to meet any one of these standards clearly constitutes a defect.

In practice, once a fire door defect is raised, several key issues collide during the court appraisal process.

• Scope of the appraisal (testing): In the past, the entire door leaf and door frame were sometimes removed and tested, but in recent court practice the mainstream approach is, in principle, to detach and test only the 'door leaf.'

• Whether full replacement costs are recognized: The unit buyers (plaintiffs) argue that if a sample test results in a failure, the fire doors of every unit in the apartment complex must be fully replaced, and they claim enormous replacement costs (removal and reinstallation of the door leaves and frames). The contractor (defendant), on the other hand, defends by arguing that only partial repair costs should be recognized or that the amount should be reduced proportionally according to the failure rate.

• Courts currently strike a balance by taking into account the limits of sample testing and either reasonably restricting the scope of repair according to the failure rate or the severity of the defect, or reducing the damages through the doctrine of limitation of liability.

2. Inter-Floor Noise: Is It Automatically a Defect If the Limit Is Exceeded?

Inter-floor noise is directly tied to residents' quality of life, but strict standards apply before it can legally be pursued as the contractor's 'defect repair liability.'

[Question] If measurements show that the inter-floor noise level exceeds the limit under the current regulations, can it automatically be treated as the contractor's defect and support a claim for damages?

[Answer] Not necessarily. The Supreme Court's standard differs markedly depending on when the apartment received its project approval.

Specific numerical standards for inter-floor noise (lightweight impact sound and heavyweight impact sound) were first introduced in the Regulations on Housing Construction Standards, Etc. (주택건설기준 등에 관한 규정) as amended on April 22, 2003. In this regard, Supreme Court Decision 2005Da56193, 56209, decided June 26, 2008 (대법원 2008. 6. 26. 선고 2005다56193, 56209 판결) sets out a very important principle.

The Supreme Court held that "the amended provisions cannot be applied as they are to multi-unit housing that received project approval before their enforcement." In other words, for an apartment that received project approval before the 2003 amendment of the standards, the mere fact that it exceeds the newly introduced numerical inter-floor noise standards does not by itself establish a defect. In such a case, liability can be imposed only by strictly proving, through a separate on-site inspection or the like, that the noise exceeded the 'tolerable limit (수인한도)', that is, the level that can be endured under general social norms.

The core logic of the contractor's defense must also be considered. If the contractor faithfully carried out the soundproofing work (such as the thickness of the floor cushioning material) in accordance with the design drawings approved by the competent authority, it bears no defect warranty liability toward the client (developer) absent special circumstances, such as having known that the design drawings were inadequate and failing to give notice. Accordingly, a court appraisal must go beyond simply measuring noise levels and must include, as a key appraisal item, 'whether the contractor lawfully performed the work in accordance with the design drawings.'

Involvement in the Appraisal Process and the Principle of Non-Retroactivity Are Key

Ultimately, in practice, apartment defect litigation is not an appeal about vague inconvenience but a battle of meticulously comparing objective test results against the construction documents.

For the council of occupants' representatives (plaintiff), it is important to be actively involved throughout the appraisal process, from the selection of fire door samples to the method of measuring inter-floor noise, in order to prove the seriousness of the defects and secure full repair costs.

Conversely, the contractor or developer (defendant) must defend against the appraiser adopting excessive repair methods (such as full removal) and, for inter-floor noise, actively demonstrate the principle of non-retroactivity of laws and its compliance with the design drawings, pursuing a strategy that substantially cuts unjustly inflated damages.

In recent apartment defect disputes, as special defects such as fire doors and inter-floor noise account for a growing share, highly specialized responses to construction appraisals are deciding the outcome of litigation. If you are facing a serious dispute with billions of won in defect repair costs at stake, please consult the experts at Cheongchul Law Firm.

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Attorney Bae Ki-hyung has worked at the Defense Installations Agency and in the construction/real estate team of a major law firm, providing legal advice on the entire process of government contracts and construction projects, including large-scale construction works such as public works, defense facility projects, and SOC construction projects, and has extensive experience and expertise in resolving related litigation. If you need assistance with public works, private construction projects, public procurement contracts, state property, local government property, or public property, please feel free to contact us at any time.

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Cheongchul Law Firm is composed exclusively of attorneys from Korea's top five major law firms, the prosecution, and in-house legal teams of large corporations, and responds to each case not with a single attorney but with a team of specialized attorneys in the relevant field. Going beyond resolving specific issues, Cheongchul provides comprehensive solutions for your overall business, offering legal consulting focused on ultimately achieving what our clients want. If you need help achieving your goals, please do not hesitate to contact Cheongchul.