VietNamNet Bridge – A Ha Noi's People's Committee decision that goes into effect next week aims to minimise conflicts between apartment owners and investors, especially in high-rise buildings. But while experts laud the move, residents are unsure that it will be effective.

Security guards and residents in an apartment building in Nam Trung Yen residential zone in Cau Giay District clean up after the building's water pipes burst. Apartment buildings in Ha Noi will set up management boards to improve management and maintenance of buildings.

Under the decision, apartment buildings must set up management boards that represent residents as well as investors. The boards will be responsible for charging monthly building maintenance fees, which must be within the levels stipulated by the people's committee.

For their part, investors will be held responsible for conducting regular maintenance of the apartment buildings they own and can be brought to court if they fail to accomplish this task.

Deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations Pham Sy Liem hailed the decision as a sign of progress.

"In other countries, apartment buildings have been legally required to have such boards for years," he said, adding, "as the boards serve an important purpose: protecting residents' right to decide which services they will get and how much they pay for them."

In Viet Nam, Liem continued, most conflicts occurred when investors charged service fees several times higher than city regulations allow. Thanks to the decision, investors who did this would now be punished according to the law.

Nguyen Manh Ha of the Ministry of Construction's Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department shared Liem's opinion.

However, many urban apartment dwellers said the new decision did not differ substantially from older rulings.

Tran Xuan, a resident of Keangnam Apartments in the city's Tu Liem District, said there was no regulation governing the legal status of the management board, so there was no way for the board to sign legal contracts with service enterprises.

Moreover, no one would want to take the time to bring investors to court when they refused to acknowledge the board, so the decision was effectively meaningless, he said, adding that he and his neighbors are charged service costs of VND16,500 per sq.m per month - more than four times higher than the level fixed by the city's people's committee.

Deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Real Estate Association Nguyen Ngoc Thanh said service fees should be based on the quality of the services and apartment buildings, not the area of each apartment.

Source: VNS