Tens of thousands of houses in Ho Chi Minh City are waiting for their pink books to be removed

Investors make mistakes, home buyers suffer the consequences

It has been more than 10 years since buying an apartment. Every time they receive information that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee will meet to remove obstacles or issue a plan to issue pink books for apartment projects in the city, residents living at Vien Ngoc Phuong Nam apartment building (address: 125/20 Au Duong Lan, Ward 2, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City) are secretly happy. However, time and time again, the issue of issuing home ownership certificates (pink books) to residents here has not been resolved.

Residents here said that with 192 apartments, this is home to more than 1,000 residents. The apartment building was built by the investor, An Dien Construction Investment Joint Stock Company. It has been more than 10 years but the apartment building has not been granted a certificate or established a management board.

According to a report from the People's Committee of District 8, in 2016, Vien Ngoc Phuong Nam apartment building handed over houses to residents, but until now, the construction completion has not been inspected. The reason is that the project was approved by the Department of Construction in Decision No. 16/QD-SXD-PTN dated January 22, 2009, with a scale of 18 floors, 2 basements, 1 mezzanine on the ground floor, and 1 mezzanine on the 18th floor.

However, during the construction of the building, the investor illegally built floors 19 and 20, causing the project to not be accepted. The investor continued to hand over the houses to organizations and individuals, and residents moved in illegally, and until now there has been no final solution from the government and authorities.

In Thu Duc City, Dat Gia apartment complex with about 970 apartments was handed over to residents many years ago, but until now, home buyers have not been granted pink books.

The reason is that the construction was built against the design approved by the competent authority; against the detailed construction planning at a scale of 1/500, in which the investor increased the construction floor area at locations in blocks A1 and A3.

While the project was still in the process of completion, the authorities discovered that the investor, Dat Gia Real Estate Consulting and Trading Company Limited, had built an additional 72.9 square meters on the mezzanine floor; from the 2nd to the 20th floor, the area was increased by 1,375.6 square meters. In October 2016, the Department of Construction Inspectorate discovered the violation, but then did not have a decisive solution to handle it.

Need to quickly remove to protect home buyers' rights

Since the 2013 Land Law took effect, Ho Chi Minh City has implemented 335 projects with more than 191,000 housing products. Although the authorities have made efforts to remove obstacles and speed up the issuance of pink books, up to now, nearly 41,000 houses and lands in Ho Chi Minh City are still "frozen".

This is causing a lot of damage to home buyers when they cannot own the house they have honestly paid for, and are held hostage because of the investor's mistakes.

Lawyer Nguyen Dang Tu - TriLaw Law Office - said that the authorities need to publicize housing projects that have not been granted certificates. This will allow home buyers to measure the reputation of investors in real estate business activities.

Current problems are related to the obligations and responsibilities of investors and management agencies. Therefore, solutions must put the interests of the people first.

Lawyer Dang Tu recommends that priority should be given to granting certificates to home buyers who are innocent, vulnerable, and honest. The investor’s fault (if any) in complying with the law on investment, construction, business, or mortgaging the project at commercial banks should be handled separately.