People remain indifferent to fire insurance
At 8:45 a.m. on June 4, 2025, a fire broke out in an apartment on the 14th floor of HH4A Linh Dam apartment building (Hoang Liet ward, Hoang Mai district, Hanoi).
Previously, on the afternoon of May 27, a fire broke out on the 6th floor of HH2A Linh Dam building and was quickly extinguished by on-site firefighters.
HH buildings in Linh Dam used to be "black spots" for fire prevention and fighting. A few years ago, the authorities conducted a surprise inspection and discovered many violations in fire prevention and fighting here. This includes not being able to present documents for purchasing compulsory fire and explosion insurance.
In fact, even people in this area are indifferent to buying fire insurance.
Mr. Xuan Truong, the owner of a 25th floor apartment, said: "I don't know if the management board has bought insurance or not, but my family hasn't".
In particular, for mini apartments, not buying fire insurance is a big flaw.
The mini apartment fire in Hanoi that occurred in September 2023 killed 56 people and injured many others, the situation was similar. The total amount of money that customers suffered losses in human lives (more than 10 billion VND) was also due to purchasing life insurance and non-life insurance, not from compulsory fire and explosion insurance products.
Because the homeowner did not buy fire insurance for the house, the property damage was not paid.
Completing the legal framework on fire and explosion insurance
Recently, the Government issued Decree No. 105/2025/ND-CP effective from July 1, guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Fire Prevention, Fire Fighting, Rescue and specifically regulating 44 lists of establishments that must purchase compulsory fire and explosion insurance. In which, apartments, collective houses with 5 floors or more or a total floor area of 1,000m2 are mandatory groups.
Thus, this Decree has been changed in a tighter direction compared to current regulations. Decree 105/2025/ND-CP also stipulates: The deduction from insurance companies implementing compulsory fire and explosion insurance in the fiscal year is 2% of the total compulsory fire and explosion insurance premiums actually collected from original insurance contracts in the previous fiscal year.
The Ministry of Public Security - the advisory agency issued Decree 105 said: “Accordingly, the regulation increases from 1% to 2% to ensure the harmonious balance between the state budget and the budget source from fire and explosion insurance, and the budget to comprehensively change the awareness and responsibility of the facility and individuals for the fire prevention and fighting, the most damage caused by fire and fire, causing the most fire and damage causing the fire, the most explosion of fire and fire damage, the most explosion of fire and damage caused by the fire, the most explosion of fire and damage caused by the fire, the most damage caused by fire and fire damage Consequences of serious and particularly serious damage, thereby directly reducing the rate of compensation for damage caused by fire and explosion of insurance business units ”.
From the perspective of people and businesses, there are opinions that compulsory fire and explosion insurance payment can increase the cost of living in apartments and collective houses. Currently, there are many types of tax and fees in apartments, so other costs should not be added, affecting residents' lives. Insurance payment should be voluntary rather than mandatory.
However, the majority agree with the new regulation, fire insurance is not an expense, but a small investment but brings great value: Security not to " Suddenly lose" assets worth billions of VND.
Talking to Lao Dong, Mr. Le Quoc Kien (living in Ho Chi Minh City) said: "The house in Tan Phu district has a construction value and assets inside of about 2.2 billion VND, I spend 3.7 million VND per year on insurance, equivalent to 0.17% of the property value. This figure is only 308,000 VND/month, or 10,000 VND/day. I think this money is investment money - investment for safety, for good sleep thanks to limiting risks".
Along with the new regulation on purchasing compulsory fire and explosion insurance, many opinions say that there should be clear instructions on the form of legal representation to avoid risks, insurance contracts that are not legally signed, insurance companies can refuse to pay, avoid compensation responsibility when an incident occurs.
