Carina apartment investor owes nearly 20 billion VND to Maintenance Fund
In 2017, the investor of Carina Plaza apartment building only spent 3.5 billion VND on maintenance of the apartment building, where a fire had just occurred, killing 13 people.
The investor of the Carina Plaza project that caught fire in the early morning of March 23, killing 13 people, is Hung Thanh Company - a member of 577 Investment Joint Stock Company (Stock code: NBB). Hung Thanh is responsible for representing 577 Company in managing, operating and doing business with the Carina Plaza project.
Early 2017, bThe consolidated financial statements of Company 577 recorded the amount that this unit still had to pay to the Carina Plaza Apartment Maintenance Fund as VND23.3 billion. By the end of 2017, this recorded amount had decreased to VND19.8 billion. That also means that in 2017, this unit only spent VND3.5 billion on maintenance activities for the apartment building that had just caught fire.
The report of Company 577 also shows that by the end of 2017, the maintenance fee that NBB had to pay to the maintenance fund at the projects was nearly 45 billion VND. In addition to Carina Plaza, this unit has not yet paid the City Gate Tower apartment maintenance fund (District 8, Ho Chi Minh City) about 25 billion VND.
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Carina Plaza investor still owes the Apartment Maintenance Fund a total amount of 19.8 billion VND. |
A Carina resident who is also on the NBB board of directors said, although the apartment building has been handed over for 6 years, the investor has not yet held an apartment building conference to elect a management board. Meanwhile, according to regulations, the Management Board must hold an apartment building conference within 12 months from the date the apartment building is handed over for use and at least 50% of the apartments have been handed over.
Mr. Doan Tuong Trieu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Company 577, said that Hung Thanh Company is a member unit. Therefore, the Board of Directors of Company 577 does not interfere in the operation, so he cannot say anything more at this time. He also said that the immediate task of 577 is to encourage and support the families of the residents, and other matters will wait for the opinions of the authorities.
Carina Plaza is one of NBB's first projects, consisting of 6 blocks on an area of 1.9 hectares, started in 2008 and handed over at the end of 2011. The apartment building is located on a land area of over 19,000 m2 on Vo Van Kiet Street. The building has three blocks from 14 to 20 floors, a commercial and entertainment area... and more than 700 apartments.A fire broke out at 1am on March 23 in the basement of an apartment building, killing 13 people and injuring more than 50 others; 13 cars and 150 motorbikes were burned.
In fact, the situation where investors refuse to organize apartment building conferences and hand over maintenance fees to residents' representatives is very common in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Recently, in some apartment projects in Hanoi, there has been a situation where investors have declared that due to business losses, they have spent all the maintenance fund. In some other projects, there has been a situation where the apartment representatives have used the maintenance fund without being open and transparent in spending... This is also the cause of the long-standing disputes in many apartment buildings. However, this situation has not been completely resolved because the sanctions for these violations are still inadequate.
Regarding Hung Thanh Company, this unit is mainly operating in investment and management of industrial, civil, bridge and road construction works, housing and real estate business.
The financial report of the parent company NBB also recorded the bond issued to the Japanese partner Creed Company based on the collateral of NBB's capital contribution to Hung Thanh Company and the value of Hung Thanh's revenues and sources of income. The total value of the issuance is more than 600 billion VND to finance the City Gate Tower project. This bond has a term of 3 years with an interest rate of 10% per year, meaning that by September 2017, NBB had to pay the entire amount to the partner.
However, by the end of 2017, the report still recorded this bond debt at 265 billion VND. NBB said it had just extended the overdue bond until the end of August 2018. That also means that Hung Thanh's revenue is being used by NBB to pay this debt.