Whether a special agreement to remove a building at the end of the lease is effective.

The special agreement to remove a building at the time of termination of the lease is an agreement to exclude the lessee's right to demand the purchase of a building under Article 643 of the Civil Code, and is disadvantageous to the lessee, and thus is null and void under Article 652 of the Civil Code.

Articles 643 and 652 of the Civil Act

[Plaintiff-Appellant] Plaintiff 1 and 1 other (Law Firm Gyeong, Attorneys Lee Dong-young et al., Counsel for plaintiff-appellant)

[Judgment of the court below]

Defendant 1 and 3 Defendants, et al., Counsel for the defendant-appellant-appellee and two others

Seoul Civil District Court Decision 91Na13358 delivered on May 13, 1992

The judgment of the court below is reversed and the case is remanded to the Panel Division of the Seoul Civil Procedure District Court.

We examine the grounds of appeal.

According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the court below found the following facts in full view of the evidences. The defendant 1 agreed to lease the land of this case from the plaintiff for the purpose of owning the house constructed on the land of this case owned by the plaintiff on May 23, 1986, and the rent shall be 2000 Gae each year without setting the lease period, and the lessee shall, if necessary, remove the building on the land of this case and deliver the land at any time, and the plaintiff shall notify the defendant 1 of the termination of the lease contract at any time. The court below rejected the defense on the ground that Article 652 of the Civil Act is not applicable in case where the tenant agreed to remove the building constructed on the land of this case at the time of the termination of the lease contract with respect to the defendants' defense of the right to purchase the building of this case and deliver the site by removing the building on the land of this case at the time of the termination of the lease contract. Accordingly, the above defense is rejected on the ground that Article 643 of the Civil Act is not recognized.

However, if the facts are as determined by the court below, the special agreement to remove the building at the time of the termination of the lease is an agreement to exclude the lessee's right to request the purchase of the building under Article 643 of the Civil Code, which is unfavorable to the lessee, and this is null and void pursuant to Article 652 of the Civil Code, unless there are other circumstances, and the court below's decision that the right to request purchase of the building is not recognized due to the lack of application of the above provision is erroneous in the misapprehension of legal principles as to the lessee's right to request purchase of the building, and therefore,

Therefore, the judgment of the court below is reversed and the case is remanded to the court below. It is so decided as per Disposition by the assent of all participating Justices.

Justices Park Jong-dong (Presiding Justice) Kim Sang-ho (Presiding Justice)