Almost all condo buildings have violated regulations on management, power safety, use of collectively owned facilities, and fire safety, according to results of a recent inspection of the HCMC Department of Construction into 30 apartment buildings in the city.    

Nhat Lan 3 apartment building in HCMC’s Binh Tan District is faced with disputes between investor Binh Chanh Construction Investment Shareholding Company and residents

Nguyen Thanh Hai, head of the division for house and office building management under the department, publicized the results at a meeting on condo management in HCMC held by Saigon Dau tu & Xay dung magazine last Friday.

The city has more than 8,600 apartment units built before 1975 when the country was reunified and after the 2005 housing law came into force on July 1, 2006.  

Four apartment buildings have yet to set up their internal management boards as they have just been put into use or less than 50% of residents have voted for such a board, which is against the current regulations.   

Meanwhile, six management boards have not signed condo service contracts with professional companies. Worse still, investors have not transferred 2% of the total proceeds from their apartment sales to the management boards to the maintenance funds at 15 condos.

In addition, disputes have occurred at eight apartment buildings related to private and collective ownership issues as residents have yet to agree on ways to determine the sizes of apartments, community rooms and basements, among others.

Ten housing investors have yet to hand home ownership certificates to residents as they are still conducting procedures to take these papers from competent agencies or have already used these certificates as collateral for bank loans.

Representatives of realty companies and condo building services firms voiced concerns over the increasing number of disputes between investors and management boards, which are caused by unclear rights and responsibilities of the latter.

Huynh Ngoc Hiep, director of project management at Saigon Vista Corporation, a consulting and management firm for buildings, said there are many disagreements among residents, apartment building management boards and investors. 

“Many board members think they are like volunteers, so they do not care much about efficiency,” Hiep said.  

In addition, operation costs and allowances for board members is inadequate, so they see little incentive to devote themselves to work. Therefore, Hiep suggested allowances for board members should not be lower than wages of officials not assigned to particular office at the ward or town level.

A representative of another business said that according to the 2014 housing law, condo building management boards have legal status and operate much like boards of directors at joint stock companies, but a model for them is unclear at present.

Do Phi Hung, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Construction, proposed management boards should have an office term of five years instead of three years so that they have time to work effectively.

He said authorities should work out a calculation method for the apartment management fee as it depends on prices of gasoline, power and water that usually fluctuate.