Property owners annoyed by anonymous illegal farmers

A sign posted on state-owned property near a creek in Gimpo City, Gyeonggi Province on June 26. It reads “Commercial farming not allowed.” Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung

By Kang Hyun-kyung

• Published Jul 1, 2021 1:34 PM KST
• Updated Jul 1, 2021 2:35 PM KST

Civil law turns blind eye to farmers illegally growing crops on other people's property

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province― I've been in a waiting game for weeks since mid-June when I first discovered someone growing sweet potatoes and green onions, without my permission, on my property located a 10-minute drive from my home in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. Near there, fresh green bean sprouts were also growing under a black plastic net. The crops were planted over a total of some 50 square meters of the innermost stretch of my property, which is almost invisible from outside, because it is surrounded with lush trees and overgrown wild flowers.

I had this disturbing discovery during my first visit this year to my 2,000-square-meter property near the Han River. I had been unable to find time to check on the fields before June, mainly because my ailing mother, who was hospitalized three times between January and May, underwent brain surgery twice, first for a cerebral hemorrhage in March and then for the recurrence of the same ailment a month later. While my mother was recovering from her condition, I finally had some free time to go and see the property for the first time since January.

Annoyed by what I discovered there, I felt the urge to exercise my rights as a property owner. I put up waterproof plastic signs here and there, informing the anonymous illegal farmer of the fact that the land is my property and that growing plants or crops on my property without my permission is illegal. I demanded that they remove all the crops from my property no later than June 30. If they fail to meet the deadline, my warning continued, I would take legal action against them.

Since putting up those signs, I've returned regularly, mostly during weekends or my days off, hoping ― perhaps in vain ― to cross paths with the person, and to deliver my concerns and warnings directly. But all I found was that my notice didn't have the effect I had hoped for.

The anonymous farmer turned a blind eye to my written warnings. Instead, he or she removed the black plastic covering the green bean sprouts to encourage them to grow better in the sunny summer weather.

I was deeply disturbed. I learned that there are many property owners like me who are embroiled in conflicts with anonymous farmers who secretly visit others' land to grow their own crops illegally. Like me, many of the owners live in the city far away from their property, so most of them ― particularly those who have full-time jobs ― have difficulty finding time to pay visits to their properties in the countryside frequently.

What frustrates property owners ― like me ― is that we don't even know who the intruders are.

“Under the current law, there are no legal measures property owners can take to protect their property from others' use if they don't know any personal information about the farmers,” said lawyer Koh Youn-gi. “If property owners remove or destroy what others planted on their land, even though someone else planted them without the owners' approval, those owners must pay the farmer financial compensation, in the case the intruders resort to legal action. Under criminal law, the property owner can also face punishment for theft or destruction of the intruder's property ― in this case, the crops.”

There was a previous legal case in which the court ruled against an unspecified property owner who destroyed the crops that intruders had planted without the former's permission. According to experts, the rationale behind court's siding with the farmers is that, unlike trees, which take years or sometimes decades to grow, it takes only several months for agricultural crops to grow, so the damage to property owners is relatively insignificant. Albeit illegally planted, the courts concluded, crops that were planted by intruders belong to those who planted them and not the owners.

Simply put, the current law protects the property of trespassers over the right of property owners.

Koh explained that the “outdated” stipulation was made some six or seven decades ago when owners abandoning their property without growing crops or vegetables was considered something akin to an act of sin, as back then, farmers were being encouraged to grow crops to produce a self-sufficient national food supply.

Farmers illegally taking advantage of a similar public property law has also become a headache for local municipalities. In Gimpo City, for example, there is a narrow stream flowing across the city area, along with rice paddies, in the neighborhood of the local Hanaro Mart, operated by Nonghyup Bank. The stream and the surrounding fields are state-owned land.

Yet, someone has grown corn, green peppers, green onions, tomatoes and other crops around the stream. Four signs were put up here and there on the sidewalk next to the stream, warning people that growing crops there is illegal and that farmers can be fined tens of millions of won if they don't remove their crops from the area.

Kang Dong-uk, a Gimpo City official in charge of government-owned land, said that, anyone caught farming illegally on government-owned property will have to pay 120 percent of the rent that the public property users pay to the government in return for their use of the land.

“What we do is first issue a written letter to illegal farmers, ordering them to remove the crops they planted and restore the territory to what it was before they planted the crops there. Then we issue another order that they pay a fine,” he said.

But such “principled” measures are meaningless in case where the government has no idea who the farmers are. In effect, there are no measures that can be taken, other than putting up warning signs against them to stop growing crops on public property.