Confused about procedural requirements

(Baonghean) - Although Joint Circular No. 01/2014/TTLT-NHNN-BXD-BTP-BTNMT (Circular 01 - between the State Bank, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) guiding the mortgage procedures for future housing according to the provisions of Decree No. 71/2010/ND-CP (Decree 71) detailing and guiding the implementation of the Housing Law was issued on April 25, 2014 and took effect from June 16, 2014, up to now, many applications for loans under the 30,000 billion VND credit support package are still stuck at the one-stop transaction center of Vinh city...

Transaction at Vinh City One-Stop Center. Photo: Nhat Lan

Mr. Le Kien Cuong - Deputy Head of Credit Department for Individual Customers, Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, Vinh Branch said: "The number of customers who need to borrow money to buy houses by mortgaging future assets is very large, however, dozens of sets of documents are still stuck for many months and cannot be disbursed. The reason is that when doing the secured transaction procedures at the One-Stop Transaction Center of Vinh City People's Committee, the staff here requires to leave the original copy of the house sale contract between the customer and the investor for the center to keep, while the bank is the mortgagee, so it is required to keep the original copy of that contract as collateral.

The paradox is that to prevent the case of a property being mortgaged in many different places, the three-party cooperation contract (investor, customer and bank) has a clause stating: "The house sale and purchase contract between the investor and the customer used as collateral at the credit institution is the only contract". Therefore, if the one-stop transaction center retains the original copy of the customer's house sale and purchase contract, the credit institution does not have the mortgaged property in hand and therefore has no basis for disbursement".

When we came to work with the Vinh City People's Committee One-Stop Transaction Center to learn about the issue, the staff in charge of receiving documents and returning results said: "We have sent an official dispatch asking for the opinion of the Department of Justice on this issue, but more than a month has passed, and until now we have not received specific instructions from the superior agencies, so the center's leaders requested that the original sales contract be kept when the parties come to complete the transaction procedures to ensure security."

When working with the Department of Justice, Ms. Nguyen Thi Que Anh - Deputy Director of the Department replied: "We have not received any official dispatch from the Vinh City One-Stop Transaction Center regarding this issue". However, Ms. Nguyen Thi Que Anh then called a judicial support specialist to work with the reporter. This person said: "In fact, the leaders of the Vinh City One-Stop Transaction Center have asked for opinions, but we only have the function of inspecting and supervising the implementation according to the provisions of the law, and the work of guiding professional procedures such as mortgaging assets such as houses and land to borrow capital from banks is under the authority of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. Legally, I think that the one-stop transaction center when carrying out procedures for certifying secured transactions only needs to keep a notarized photocopy, and the original sales contract between the investor and the customer must be kept by the bank, because the bank is the lender, so they have the right to keep the collateral".

When we came to work with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to learn more, the Chief of Office answered: "The Department only manages in general, as for professional issues, you should go down and ask the one-stop transaction center". When we met Mr. Tran Van Ty - Director of the one-stop transaction center, under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment's Land Use Rights Registration Office, Mr. Ty said: "Here we only handle cases of organizations, as for individual customers, go to the Vinh City One-stop transaction center. If the City One-stop transaction center has any unclear issues, send an official dispatch asking for guidance from the department, but here is just an office under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, so it does not have the authority to handle that issue". However, Mr. Ty also added: "In the case of organizations registering for secured transactions when mortgaging loans from banks, we only keep notarized copies of the sales contract, the original is kept by the bank. As for individual customers, it is not under our jurisdiction, so I do not know clearly."

Returning to the Vinh City One-Stop Transaction Center, we were answered by staff member Nguyen Bao Anh, who is in charge of receiving documents and returning results: "Currently, many banks are asking about this issue, but the center is still waiting for instructions from superiors."

Many credit officers of banks and customers who need to borrow capital from the 30,000 billion VND credit support package are very upset about this incident. Because with the roundabout response of the Vinh City One-Stop Transaction Center like this, how long will people have to wait?

Hoang Hao