Residents’ representative council and management authority

Under the Multi-Family Housing Management Act, the statutory “Management Entity” is defined as the head of the management office; the Council of Occupants’ Representatives is excluded from that definition. In practice, however, the management office functions merely as an executive arm, implementing the Council’s resolutions, while the Council is the principal decision-making body in apartment complexes. The Act’s failure to specify the Council’s authority has generated recurring disputes over the scope of the management entity and the attribution of responsibility, a tension reflected in Supreme Court rulings that excluded the Council from the statutory category when conflicts with the management office arose. To reconcile legal doctrine with practice, this article clarifies the legal basis and contours of Council authority. This authority rests on public law regulation oriented toward the public interest, in contrast to governance under the Act on Ownership and Management of Condominium Buildings, which derives from the private law rights and obligations of unit owners. The article advances a dual-aspect framework for “management authority”: (i) an authority dimension—competence to adopt binding decisions on apartment management—and (ii) a responsibility dimension—exposure as the addressee of adverse administrative measures. Interpreting the Act through this dual lens avoids the unhelpful dichotomy of either denying or uniformly recognizing the Council as a management entity. It also enables a more precise allocation of powers and liabilities in apartment governance.