Misuse of apartment maintenance fund, management board fined 50 - 60 million VND

The Government has issued Decree 139/2017/ND-CP regulating administrative sanctions for violations in construction investment, real estate business, housing development, house management and use... Notably, there are many regulations that are said to resolve the long-standing conflicts between investors, management boards and residents.

Article 66 of this Decree specifically stipulates many severe sanctions for investors and management boards.

Specifically, the management board of the apartment building will be fined 50-60 million VND if it violates the management and use of maintenance funds for common property in violation of regulations; arbitrarily changes the function and purpose of using common property or common use; arbitrarily decides the price of apartment management and operation services or arbitrarily decides to choose a unit to sign a contract to provide apartment management and operation services without going through the apartment building conference.

In case the investor arbitrarily sells or rents out parking spaces in the apartment building in violation of regulations, he/she will be fined from 80 to 90 million VND. If he/she does not organize the first apartment building meeting according to regulations, he/she will be fined from 100 to 150 million VND.

In particular, if the investor does not hand over, hands over late, hands over incompletely or hands over to the wrong recipient of maintenance funds for the common property of the apartment building according to regulations, they will also be fined from 100 to 150 million VND.

Illustration photo.

Investors who arbitrarily change the function and purpose of common property; do not arrange an area for a community house; or miscalculate the area of ​​an apartment or other area in a privately owned apartment building will be fined VND250-300 million.

Residents in the apartment building will also be fined if they commit violations. Specifically, residents who use the apartment for purposes other than residence; run restaurants, karaoke, bars in areas not used for business in the apartment building; encroach on surrounding space, encroach on common property or encroach on private property of other owners... will be fined from 30-50 million VND.

The fines prescribed in this Decree apply to organizations. For individuals committing the same violation, the fine will be half. Each violation mentioned above is accompanied by specific remedial measures such as restoring the original state, refunding funds used for improper purposes, forcing the cancellation of regulations on improper fee calculation, etc.

Recently, disputes in apartment buildings have occurred in series, mainly due to conflicts related to common and private ownership areas, especially the contribution, management and use of maintenance fees. In Ho Chi Minh City alone, according to statistics from the Department of Construction, up to 96 out of a total of 2,148 apartment buildings in the area have had disputes in recent times.

In fact, the maintenance cost of an apartment building can be up to tens of billions of dong, or converting a small area of ​​common property, such as a parking lot, into private property can bring in billions of dollars in profit. This huge amount of revenue makes investors or management boards always find ways to take advantage of it, not using it according to regulations.

According to management agency data, in Hanoi only 20% of apartment buildings have handed over maintenance funds to the management board elected by residents, the remaining 80% are still in a state of confusion.

According to Tien Phong Newspaper