Many investors of apartment buildings in Hanoi have failed to hand over maintenance fees or communal areas to apartment management boards.

Many investors of apartment buildings in Hanoi have failed to hand over maintenance fees or communal areas to apartment management boards.— Photo tienphong.vn

This was announced by Nguyen Nguyen Quan, head of the Urban Division of the Hanoi People’s Council and head of the inspection team, during a meeting between the team and the municipal Department of Construction (DoC) on Thursday.

The inspection team found many shortcomings in the implementation of regulations on the issues while inspecting 270 buildings in the city.

Specifically, 158 building owners hadn’t given maintenance fees to the management boards and 109 hadn’t made communal areas available.

The team also found disputes between apartments’ management boards and developers occurred at 105 buildings instead of 47 as reported by the DoC.

He blamed investors and management agencies ranging from wards and districts to the municipal DoC.

Nguyen Hoai Nam, head of Legal Division under Hanoi People’s Council, said, by law, the owner of an apartment has to pay a fee of two per cent of the total value of the apartment for the maintenance of facilities inside the building.

In accordance with the Housing Law, the People’s Committees of provinces and cities have to force investors to transfer 70 per cent of the maintenance fee to the management board.

Nam said it was time for authorities to take drastic measures to prevent fires and broken elevators in buildings which threatened the lives of residents due to lack of maintenance.

He proposed the DoC guide apartment residents to choose competent units to take charge of buildings’ operation.

“To be qualified, these units would have to apply for a licence from city authorities. This will ensure the units are capable of handling problems that arise during the building’s operation,” Nam was quoted by Pháp luật thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (HCM City Law) newspaper as saying.

Le Van Duc, head of municipal Department of Construction, said the department would impose strict punishment on violators in the future.

The department would complete a draft regulation handling outstanding issues which persists during the buildings’ operation this month. — VNS