Solving the problem at Vicentra apartment building: Goodwill from all parties is needed!

(Baonghean) - Advertised as a place "converging the best conditions and utilities for living and working...", however, since 2014, residents living in the high-end apartment building Vicentra (Vinh City) have repeatedly petitioned authorities and the press, hoping to have their rights protected because the quality of the apartment building is not guaranteed. In mid-July 2015, Nghe An Newspaper continued to receive petitions from many Vicentra households with similar content...

Vicentra shopping center and luxury apartments (Vinh city).

In this petition, the residents of the Vicentra luxury apartment complex wrote: "We are the ones who spent billions of dong to buy Vicentra luxury apartments with the expectation of having quality houses as its name suggests. But we were wrong and extremely disappointed...".

Taking reporters to witness the apartment building, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Han (living in room 1085), the petitioner and also the temporary representative of the households, said: The building shows many weaknesses in quality, which can affect the health of the households. Mr. Han explained: Due to unreasonable design, the apartments do not have a place to install air conditioners, the apartment owners have to renovate but because of that, the quality of operation is not good, besides, the corridors of the buildings only have one air intake door, so there is no air circulation, causing stuffiness and heat; The law and regulations of the Ministry of Construction clearly state the criteria for high-class apartments, including common ownership, private ownership and the minimum need for parking. However, the investor does not consider the basement as common ownership, but they consider it private ownership and sell it to organizations and individuals in need...; The underground water tank is unscientifically designed, leading to poor water quality. Meanwhile, it is very difficult to check and clean the tank because the access road is inconvenient; The investor does not have the function of trading electricity, but still signs a contract to buy electricity with the electricity company and applies a higher selling price to households than the regulations; The investor collects the highest management fee (VND 3,000/m2), but the service quality is not commensurate. Due to poor management and operation of the apartment building, while hundreds of households in the apartment building do not have the right to make requests, regulations and supervise service providers, all households want to organize an apartment conference to elect a management board. However, the investor keeps delaying the organization... "We have no rights in our house, everything depends on the investor, so life is getting more and more miserable" - Mr. Nguyen Dinh Han was upset.

According to Mr. Ho Van Bai, Acting General Director of Vinh Trade Center Investment Joint Stock Company, representing the investor, the recommendations of some households have some correct points, the investor has made adjustments but sadly "those good intentions are not recognized". For example, regarding the issue of domestic water, Mr. Bai said that when there was a reflection that the water was cloudy, the Apartment Management Board and representatives of the households conducted an inspection (Mr. Nguyen Dinh Han participated and signed the minutes). The result was that the walls and bottom of the tank were waterproof, there was no external erosion, and there was no phenomenon of water pollution. At the bottom and wall of the tank, there was a layer of residue due to the water supply not being guaranteed and settling over time; when the water supply returned with high pressure, it caused the residue layer to overflow, and the mortar layer at the bottom of the tank to peel off... After the inspection, the Management Board cleaned and washed the tank thoroughly. When the people's representative proposed to re-plaster the bottom of the tank, create a slope at the bottom, separate the domestic water tank from the fire water tank... The management board and the people's representative agreed to hold a meeting to get people's opinions and make a budget to coordinate with the investor to implement. Regarding the proposal to buy electricity at home, the company strongly agreed. Because, with the current situation, the company is suffering losses because it has to pay salaries to staff to collect fees, operate and maintain the system... "The apartment building has been in use since 2011. Since then, we have suffered losses every month, some months up to tens of millions of dong. Only since May 2015, due to the hot weather, people have used a lot of electricity and made a profit of several million dong. However, people think that we are taking advantage of people to make a profit..." - Mr. Bai said. And, he asked the accountant to show all the invoices of transactions with the Electricity industry to prove the "loss"; along with many documents requesting the Northern Power Corporation, Nghe An Power and the acceptance of the power grid at Vicentra apartment building. Mr. Bai added: "The Electricity Industry has had a number of documents responding that it has not agreed to accept the request to sell electricity to each household in Vicentra apartment building. We have posted these documents on the bulletin board for the households to know. Honestly, we really want to work with representatives of the households to work with the state management agency to resolve the electricity problem, because the desire to buy electricity at home of the households is completely legitimate...".

Regarding planning, design, construction quality, as well as common and private ownership. According to Mr. Ho Van Bai, basically, the complaint is incorrect because "the apartment sale and purchase contract signed by both parties was not carefully studied". For example, regarding the basement, the contract clearly states: The private area of ​​the building of the investor "is the area and utilities in the building, not allocated to the contract value, including: the entire basement of the building is not included in the apartment sale price". Or as some households stated in the complaint that "according to the house sale and purchase contract, the building's windows are 2-panel windows, but when the house is handed over, it is a 1-panel window... very inconvenient, so when the house is completed, residents have to replace other windows at a cost of hundreds of millions of dong". Such a complaint is incorrect. Because the perspective drawing of the building handed over to customers shows that it is a 1-panel window; The contract states: "The entire window system is Eurowindow's high-quality PVC plastic doors, which can be rotated and tilted, with high tightness and tightness." And the design and quality of the windows in the apartments have all been done exactly as such... The investor really wants to organize a condominium conference to transfer related tasks and responsibilities to the new Management Board, so that residents can share more. "We hope the conference will be held as soon as possible to avoid compensation for management and operation activities," Mr. Ho Van Bai affirmed.

Previously, around February 2014, Nghe An Newspaper received a petition from residents of Vicentra apartment building with the content of unsatisfactory living conditions. At that time, the General Director of Vinh Trade Center Investment Joint Stock Company, Mr. Nguyen Canh Mao, admitted about local unsanitary conditions, inadequacies in electricity prices... However, at present, these problems have not been completely resolved. Reading the investor's promotional content and applying it to the standards of high-end apartments, we see that Vicentra apartment building clearly does not meet the standards. In Circular No. 14/2008/BXD dated June 2, 2008 of the Ministry of Construction guiding the classification of apartment buildings, it is clearly stated that class 1 (high-end) apartment buildings are the class with the highest quality of use; ensure planning, architecture, technical infrastructure, social infrastructure, quality of completion, equipment and conditions for providing management services to reach a perfect level. Not to mention the quality of service management must be "perfect", to reach "high-class" standards, the apartment must have a yard, garden, lawn, trees, beautifully designed, complete and unified walking path; spacious surrounding space, airy and clean environment..., are the core criteria to ensure space and living environment, but in Vicentra apartment, it is almost zero. From that reality, it can be seen that, although there may be points that some households reflect that are not completely accurate, the investor still needs to review its responsibility to perform well the management work and perfect the types of services during the time when the new management board has not been established.

Therefore, when there are some unsatisfactory issues, it is necessary to cooperate with the investor to make appropriate adjustments. And with the issues mentioned in the petition, households need to coordinate with the investor to organize a general meeting, with the participation of relevant parties such as the city government; local wards and blocks; electricity and water units... to clarify responsibilities and propose solutions. There should be no "throwing the wick away, throwing the lead back", prolonging the petition...

Nhat Lan