In Clause 1, Article 20 of the Law on Real Estate Business 2023, home buyers have the following rights:
a) Request the seller or lessee to complete the procedures for buying and selling houses, construction works, and construction floor areas in construction works within the agreed terms in the contract.
b) Request the seller or lessee to buy and sell houses, construction works, construction floor area in construction works in accordance with the agreed terms, quality and other conditions in the contract; hand over the certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land according to the provisions of the law on land and related documents according to the agreed contract.
c) Request the seller or lessee to buy a security deposit for a house, construction works, and the construction floor area in a construction work according to the agreement in the contract and the provisions of law.
d) Request the seller or lessee to compensate for damages caused by the allocation of houses, construction works, construction floor area in construction works that are not on time, quality and other commitments in the contract.
d) Other rights under the contract.
Accordingly, buyers have the following rights when buying a house:
- Request the seller to complete the sale procedures within the agreed time limit.
- Request to hand over the house and project on time, with quality and the committed conditions, along with relevant legal documents.
- Request a warranty according to the contract and legal regulations.
- Request compensation for damages if the house is not delivered on time, with quality or under commitment.
- Exercise other rights under the contract.
At the same time, the payment of fines and compensation for damages is also stipulated in Article 48 of the Law on Real Estate Business:
- Payment in real estate transactions and real estate projects is agreed upon by the parties in the contract and in compliance with the provisions of law.
- Fines and compensation for damages caused by buyers, transferees, lessees, buyers who are behind schedule in payment or sellers, transferors, lessees, and buyers who are behind schedule in real estate handover by the parties' agreement and must be stated in the contract.
In the 2015 Civil Code, Article 413 stipulates the obligation to not perform due to the fault of one party as follows:
In a bilateral contract, when one party cannot fulfill its obligations due to the fault of the other party, it has the right to request the other party to still fulfill its obligations to it or cancel the contract and request compensation for damages.
In addition, Article 418 of the 2015 Civil Code stipulates the agreement on penalties for violations as follows:
1. The fine for violation is an agreement between the parties in the contract, accordingly, the violator is obliged to pay a sum of money to the violator.
2. The penalty for violation is agreed upon by the parties, unless otherwise provided by relevant laws.
3. The parties may agree on the violation of the obligations only to be penalized for violations without having to compensate for damage or both have to be penalized and have to compensate for damage.
In case the parties have an agreement on the penalty for violation but do not agree on both the penalty for violation and compensation for damages, the violator is obliged to only suffer the penalty for violation.
Thus, when the investor is late in handing over the house, the buyer has the right to request the investor to compensate for damages.
