Care is needed with cases that are easily mistaken for unregistered brokerage but are not. Brokering during a period of suspension of business or of a business suspension order is not unregistered brokerage, nor are brokering by someone who committed grounds for cancellation but has not yet received a cancellation order, brokering by a disqualified person, brokering after receiving notice of registration but without arranging the required guarantee, merely promising or asking for a fee while unregistered, arranging the final payment after closing the business following the signing of a sales contract, or brokering by someone who registered improperly. Court decisions vary. When an unlicensed person closes a deal and a licensed agent merely stamps the contract the unlicensed person drew up to make it look proper, that is lending a license and counts as unregistered brokerage, and an unlicensed person brokering as a partner in a licensed office likewise counts as unregistered brokerage subject to criminal punishment. A person who borrowed a license and then signed a lease directly as a party with the person who asked for brokerage is not brokering. But merely letting an unlicensed person invest in an office in the agent's name and share in the profits is not lending the registration certificate and so is not unregistered brokerage.

Everyone involved in brokerage is barred from belonging to more than one brokerage office. Assistants likewise cannot be employed by two offices at once, and an agent whose business is closed temporarily or suspended cannot be employed by another agent. Agents sharing an office cannot jointly employ staff. An agent who holds dual affiliation faces mandatory cancellation of registration and the same criminal penalty as double registration. An affiliated agent faces license suspension for dual affiliation, and license revocation if it happens during a suspension. Assistants face no administrative sanction but only criminal penalties.

This paper reviewed brokerage office registration: the requirements, procedures and documents, how registration ends, grounds for disqualification and administrative sanctions. Brokers are professionals who handle real estate, people's most important property, so strict qualifications and ethics are required. Disqualified persons therefore cannot be brokers, affiliated agents, assistants or officers of a brokerage corporation; if a broker becomes disqualified, the registration authority cancels the office registration, and a disqualified employee cannot work in brokerage. But as the property market has begun to recover, violations by brokerage offices have also increased. Offices that charge excessive fees or engage in speculation in violation of the act can have their registration cancelled or business suspended, but until they are caught the client bears the harm, so special care is needed.

Unregistered brokerage and brokerage disguised as something else are illegal, and clients cannot get legal compensation when disputes arise, so people should always use a licensed office registered with the authorities. To prevent such conduct, the industry should also manage brokers effectively through regular training. Training should give brokers the law and market information that change every year so they can serve clients better, and raise their expertise so they do not harm clients' valuable property rights.

To add: a 2023 revision of the Licensed Real Estate Agents Act requires assistants to tell clients that they are assistants when showing properties, and limits the number of assistants an office can employ to five times the combined number of its agents. Since October 2021, revised fee caps apply, with more brackets for sales of 900 million won or more and leases of 600 million won or more. The lawyer brokerage case described in the paper was at the first-instance stage when it was written, so please check the later rulings separately.