Difficult To Coerce Recovery Of Apartment Maintenance Funds

Hanoi has instructed the department to tighten coercive investment by paying 2% of the apartment maintenance fund in the face of increasing disputes between residents and investors.

All over the place because of maintenance fees

The story of maintenance fees at the Keangnam Building (Tu Liem District) is a typical example of a series of disputes between residents and investors. After 6 years of struggle, until the beginning of April, the new owner refunded the amount of $5.5 million maintenance fees. “Many years of struggle with the new owner to claim this money, investors do not pay immediately, but every 3 months pay $910,000. It is clear that our money but when the claim is miserable and grievances forever”, said Nguyen Van Can, Keangnam Building Administration Board.

Not all residents are as fortunate as in Keangnam district, many other apartment buildings in Hanoi are also in bad condition bad because the investor is willing to hand over maintenance fees.

Although Golden Land apartment project by Huong Viet Trading Joint Stock Company (under Hoang Huy Group) at 275 Nguyen Trai (Thanh Xuan district) has been put into use for many years now, according to the management board of the building up to now, the investor has handed over part of the maintenance cost of the apartment area as of March 31^st, 2017 (about $1,600). The remaining area of the apartment has not yet sold, sold at the trade center, the area of private ownership, the area of the trade center investors have still not handed over maintenance funds (about $700).

D2 Giang Vo Apartment is “hot” about the residents suggest that from 2015 to now have no management board and ambiguity in the maintenance fund

In March 2017, the Department of Construction required the owner to hand over the apartment management file and carry out the responsibility for handing over the maintenance fund. In case of non-performance, the Department will report to City issued the decision to enforce. Then, in May 2017, Thanh Xuan district also sent a letter requesting the investor of the Golden Land apartment building to hand over the building management file, maintenance fees to the management board and listing the area used in common, private … in the apartment. But now the owner is still unfinished.

The households of D2 Giang Vo Building (Ba Dinh District) have also submitted a petition to the authorities that the JIA Bao Housing Development and Investment Joint Stock Company is continuously “on time” to set up the Management Board. Mr. Nguyen Danh Thanh – Deputy Head of Community Monitoring Team D2 – said that building D2 includes resettlement apartments from 6^th to 10^th floors; commercial apartments (from 11^th to 20^th floors) and offices for rent (the bottom). Therefore, according to Thanh, the maintenance fund of 2% is up to hundreds of billions dong but still floating since 2015 so far has not been handed over.

Coercion is difficult

Talking with reporters, representatives of the House Management and Development Department of the real estate market (Department of Construction in Hanoi) said that in recent time in the area there are many projects are emerging disputes between people with investors related to handover maintenance funds. “The maintenance charge has stipulated that both the buyer and the owner must comply. The law also clearly stipulates, when charging 2%, the investor must set up the separate account, not using the general account of the investor. This private account will be given to the apartment management. If the investor is against the law will be dealt with by the authorities in accordance with regulations, leaders of the House Management and Development Real Estate Market.

According to him, the implementation of coercive investors to hand over maintenance funds despite the legal regulations, but difficult because of the reasons: Many of the apartment, although put into use, but not set up building management; Neither side has agreed on a number of maintenance fees. Next to the fact that many investors do not have a separate bank account maintenance account number but put into a joint business account. This is not to mention the owner’s debt, bankruptcy: “Our view is that in case investors do not set up maintenance fees will take money from their business accounts. In addition to the enforcement, the Department will handle the administrative violation of the investor (currently drafting regulations). But in fact, there are no cases”, he said.

illustration

On coercive maintenance funds, many experts say that coercive measures are strong, but only to solve the top of the problem. For rooting, the authorities should not let the owner keep and manage the maintenance budget, but from the beginning, it should be taken into account by a third party, as a home management agency. At that point, the owner will no longer be able to afford or spend 2% of the maintenance fee on the property for another purpose: “We have to tighten it from the beginning. For example, a maintenance fee should stipulate maintenance fees at the time of purchase, contracting and who owns it, not the owner. Maintenance fees must be specific, such as when to pay fees, how to pay someone to keep and manage how to avoid tracing later”, economist Vu Dinh Anh analyzed.

When will the maintenance fund of the new residents be recovered and managed correctly? The answer is waiting for drastic solutions from Hanoi and the Ministry of Construction. “Our view is that in the case where an investor does not have a maintenance account, they will get money from their business account. In addition to enforcement, the Department will handle the administrative violation of the investor (currently drafting regulations). However, the real situation has not been enforced yet”, said representatives of the Housing Management and Development Department of the real estate market (Department of Construction in Hanoi).

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