Illegal and illegal houses will be demolished, not punished for existing.

Decree No. 139/2017/ND-CP of the Government regulating administrative sanctions for violations in construction investment activities; exploitation, processing and trading of minerals for construction materials, production and trading of construction materials; management of technical infrastructure works; real estate business, housing development, management of house and office use... will take effect from January 15.

Accordingly, while previously, illegal constructions could be fined to survive, Decree 139 now allows homeowners 60 days to adjust or apply for a construction permit for illegal constructions.

Illustration photo.

For construction works that violate construction boundaries or encroachment, they will be demolished immediately. For construction works that are under construction and do not violate the above factors, they will have 60 days to complete the procedures. If after the above deadline, the documents are not complete, the illegal construction parts will be demolished.

Illegal and unauthorized construction works will have their electricity and water supply cut off, while construction order violations will be handled in parallel to increase effectiveness.

Decree 139 also stipulates violations in the field of real estate business. Article 57, Clause 3 stipulates a fine of 250 - 300 million VND for one of the following acts of real estate business where the real estate does not fully meet the prescribed conditions or is not allowed to be put into business according to regulations; real estate business is not within the scope of business according to regulations; authorizing or assigning a party participating in investment cooperation, joint venture, association, business cooperation or capital contribution to sign a contract for sale, transfer or lease of real estate.

In addition to the above fines, additional penalties will be applied when real estate business activities are suspended for up to 12 months.

Regarding the above issue, at the Conference on the implementation of Decree 139 organized by the Ministry of Construction in Ho Chi Minh City recently, a representative of the Ministry of Construction Inspectorate said that this regulation is definitive that illegal construction will be demolished, and there will be no penalty for existing construction as in previous regulations.

According to Decree 139, the maximum fine in the field of construction investment activities is 1 billion VND; in the field of mining, processing, trading of minerals for construction materials, production, trading of construction materials; management of technical infrastructure works; real estate business, housing development, management of house and office use is 300 million VND.