Distorted face waiting for apartment's pink book

Waiting wearily

Mr. Hoang Tu - who bought an apartment at the Ascent project in Thao Dien ward, district 2, Ho Chi Minh City, invested by Tien Phat Company - was upset and said that when he learned about buying an apartment in the project, he was advertised as a high-end project and the investor was very financially strong, so after handing over the house, the pink book would be quickly issued to the residents. However, after nearly 2 years of moving in, he still has not seen the pink book. The investor gave the reason of slow state administrative procedures without any specific commitment.

In many other apartment projects in Ho Chi Minh City, there are many projects where people have been waiting for 6 years, some even nearly 10 years, but still cannot see the pink book. Most of the time, it is because the investors have mortgaged the project, cannot pay the debt or have committed violations in the construction work, causing disputes.

For example, the case of households living in Phu Thanh apartment building, Tan Phu district, Ho Chi Minh City, invested by Construction Joint Stock Company 585. Having moved in since mid-2011, for the past 6 years, 840 households living in these 5 blocks of 17-storey apartment buildings have had to wait "with long necks" to be granted pink books.

Residents here said that when receiving the apartment, the households had to pay up to 95% of the purchase price and pay 2% of the apartment maintenance fee. When handing over the apartment, the investor also firmly committed that 1 year later, the procedures for issuing the pink book would be carried out and the residents had to pay the remaining amount when receiving the book. However, up to now, although the residents of this apartment building have repeatedly requested the competent authorities to intervene to issue the book, no one in the apartment building has been able to see the certificate of ownership of the apartment they spent money to buy.

In particular, Phu Thanh apartment residents were more upset when they learned that Company 585 had mortgaged the land use right certificate of this project to Viet A Bank to borrow more than 200 billion VND. Currently, Viet A Bank has also sold this bad debt to VAMC. Talking about the situation of waiting for the pink book, many people who bought houses in this project bitterly said: "We have paid enough money to buy the house but the investor's name is on the documents, it is no different from renting in our own house".

According to the report provided by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City at the end of 2017, in the city, there are still more than 16,000 certificates of investors who have not completed the procedures for applying for land use right certificates and the department is urging investors to quickly complete them for home buyers.

Who is loosening control?

According to regulations, the issuance of apartment pink books will be carried out when the investor has completed the project and completed other utilities. Therefore, only after completing the completion documents can the application for issuing pink books for each apartment be carried out. Once the investor is slow to complete the project according to the approved design, it will lead to a delay in completing the application for pink books.

In the case of an apartment building that has been handed over for many years without a pink book, it may be because the investor has not fulfilled its commitment to build utilities and social works, leading to the ineligibility to apply for a pink book. Or because the investor has not followed the project approval, causing problems. But whatever the reason, the one who suffers in the end is still the home buyer.

In addition, at present, in many apartment buildings, home buyers also reflect the case where the investor has applied for a red book for the entire project, but mortgaged it to the bank to borrow more capital, leading to a bottleneck in the process of applying for a pink book for apartment owners. The question is, can the investor mortgage the property while selling the house to the people be considered a violation of the law?

Regarding this issue, lawyer Nguyen Thanh Nha (DBS Law Office) shared that the fact that the investor mortgaged the property while selling the house to the residents could be considered an act of fraud. However, before lending, the bank needs to check and will know that the property has actually been sold to the residents. "In my opinion, in this case, if the bank did not help, it would be difficult to do so. Therefore, the possibility of collusion here is very high."

According to some experts in the industry, in case the investor mortgages the land use right certificate at the bank, residents need to establish an apartment management board so that the management board can work directly with the investor and the management agency on behalf of the residents. At the same time, the management board contacts the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the bank where the investor mortgages the project to borrow capital to get information about the amount of money the investor borrows and the payment time, in order to find a solution.

Currently, the regulations on granting pink books are very clear, buyers must carefully research the legal aspects of the project and the reputation of the investor. Limiting risks and handling violations are based on the contract signed between the investor and the buyer and the provisions of law. At the same time, the responsibility of state management agencies is necessary, because it cannot be considered a simple relationship between home buyers and investors, because home buyers are always in a weaker position than investors and cannot control all risks in the transaction.