Regarding the complaint of some households in the Social Housing Area

(Baonghean) - Recently, Nghe An Newspaper has received a complaint from a number of households in the Le Loi Social Housing Area, Vinh City with the following content: TECCO Joint Stock Company, the investor of the Le Loi Social Housing Project, Vinh City, has not properly implemented the purchase, payment, and construction quality procedures. The company has taken actions to control and collect debts of poor households in the Le Loi Social Housing Area in violation of the law... In parallel with sending reporters to investigate and verify the incident, Nghe An Newspaper's Editorial Board sent an official dispatch with the above content, requesting TECCO Joint Stock Company to

Check, process and respond in writing to the settlement results. On March 4, 2014, TECCO Joint Stock Company issued Official Letter No. 22/TECCO.CN regarding: Responding to the content of the official letter of Nghe An Newspaper regarding the low-income apartment building in Le Loi Ward (Vinh City). The content of Official Letter No. 22 of TECCO Joint Stock Company is as follows:

1. The reflection of some households living in Le Loi low-income apartment building saying that the investor hired "gangsters" to intimidate is completely untrue. This is the investor's security department to protect property and maintain order in the apartment building due to some cases of vandalism of apartment property (breaking the lock of the technical room, arbitrarily expanding the apartment building...). The activities of the security department are under the control of the investor and Le Loi Ward Police, not going beyond the prescribed framework as reflected by some households stated in the petition.

2. The design and completion documents of the project have been approved by the competent state agency. The project has been granted a certificate of conformity to construction quality by the Center for Quality Control - Nghe An Department of Construction and put into use according to regulations. The investor has handed over the drawings to the Management Board (MB) of the apartment building for management. During the process of using and replacing parts of the BMB, the completion drawings have been lost. The investor will provide them again upon request of the Management Board of the apartment building.

3. Typical apartment designs are similar, the investor provides a complete set of design documents to the management board, households needing to use contact the management board for provision.

4. The issuance of apartment ownership certificates has been promoted by the Investor and a set of documents has been issued to households according to the form of the certificate issuing agency (Vinh City People's Committee). Households declare according to the form and confirm with the ward/commune level agency, then the Investor collects and sends it to the City People's Committee for processing and issuance of certificates according to regulations. The Investor supports and coordinates with the competent agencies to issue certificates to households, but does not declare and confirm the content of the application for issuance of certificates on behalf of households.

5. Any deterioration (if any) that is within the responsibility of the construction warranty as prescribed has been carried out by the Investor. In some cases where the householder has carried out the renovation and repair themselves, the Investor has calculated and offset the costs, ensuring the rights of the households. The opinions of some households stated in the petition are not specific to each household, but only stated in general terms. The Investor requests that the Investor contact the Investor directly at each specific apartment for resolution.

6. The construction of the apartment building's yard has been carried out according to the design level, and has been inspected and accepted by the competent authority for quality before being put into use. The phenomenon of flooding during prolonged heavy rain is due to the fact that the city's general drainage system in the project area has not been constructed (approved - the project to renovate and dredge the drainage ditches in the Vinh ancient citadel area). Raising the yard surface as proposed by some households is not the responsibility of the investor, the households themselves discussed and contributed funds to implement.

7. The construction of a wall separating the low-income housing project area from the surrounding area is not included in the approved planning. Households should discuss and seek permission from the authorities to carry out the construction.

8. The obligation to pay for the apartment and related responsibilities are clearly stated in the apartment sale and purchase contract signed between the investor and the homebuyer, which is the basis for the parties to perform. The investor requests that the homebuyers perform according to the signed contract.

9. The clean water tank is built with reinforced concrete structure, ensuring waterproofing and has been sealed so it is not affected by surface water drainage around, the raised part is the tank lid used to check and clean the tank, and at the same time prevent dirty water from overflowing when flooding occurs. The use process does not affect movement in the apartment building.

The low-income housing project in Le Loi ward has been handed over and put into use for more than 2 years. The investor built the project entirely with loans from commercial banks (average interest rate of about 20%/year). Up to now, the debt has not been fully recovered; households have been able to buy houses at an average selling price of 7.1 million VND/m2 approved by the Provincial People's Committee, and have prioritized policies to apply (compared to the selling price of commercial housing, it is about 3 million VND/m2 lower). The investor has also created conditions for households to move in without having to pay the full amount to buy the apartment.

Therefore, giving unreasonable reasons to delay and not pay the remaining apartment fee to the Investor according to the apartment purchase contract forces the Investor to stop providing apartment services as per the signed apartment purchase contract. Some others (including a number of officials) have an attitude of resistance, are uncooperative, taking advantage of the State's support policies to not implement the terms of the signed contract but also entice other households to participate in submitting complaints to delay the payment time for the apartment purchase.

Through this, the Investor also clearly stated the existing problems to verify some household owners who were behind the call and incitement (the name of the applicant was not clearly stated in the complaint documents). The Investor will request the competent authorities to inspect and proceed to revoke the approved right to buy low-income apartments and transfer them to other subjects in need, and at the same time have a form of handling.

First of all, Nghe An Newspaper would like to thank TECCO Joint Stock Company for responding to the content of the Newspaper's dispatch. After receiving the document from TECCO Joint Stock Company; verifying through representatives of the Management Board, the residential group of Le Loi social housing apartment building; Le Loi Ward Police, Nghe An Newspaper would like to discuss some issues as follows:

Firstly, the inadequacies in infrastructure (some items such as the yard, the foundation of the first floor of the low-income apartment building...) in the low-income housing apartment building are real. To clarify the cause, the Management Board as well as the households requested to verify by checking the technical documents, completion drawings... In the response to Nghe An Newspaper, TECCO Joint Stock Company stated that "The investor has handed over the drawings to the Management Board (MB) of the apartment building for management, during the process of using and replacing parts in the BMB, the completion drawings were lost, the investor will provide them again when requested by the BMB of the apartment building". However, according to the representative of the Management Board, they have requested the competent authority and asked the investor to provide the documents but the investor has not yet done so. I think this is a legitimate request, the investor should soon provide the design documents and completion drawings approved by the competent authority to the BMB of the apartment building.

Second, although the Management Board of the apartment complex was established in December 2012, it has not yet been operating effectively. The main reason is that the investor has not yet handed over the management of utility services in the apartment complex; 2% of the total project cost has not been handed over as prescribed. Through verification, the debt between the investor and some households has not been settled; the amount of money some households still owe the investor is about 2 billion VND, so the low-income housing apartment complex is still the investor's property, so the handover of service activities, 2% of the cost... cannot be completely resolved. However, the Management Board has been established by the Vinh City People's Committee, needs to be operated according to its functions, and operate effectively. Therefore, the investor needs to soon have a direction to gradually transfer related issues of the low-income housing apartment complex to the Management Board for management.

Looking back at the complaints of some households in the Le Loi Social Housing Area, it can be seen that the problems here focus on some shortcomings of the technical infrastructure of the project and the debt issue. However, through verification, Nghe An Newspaper found that the content reflected in the complaints of the households is not realistic. There are problems between the parties, but resolving the problems by making complaints with unrealistic content cannot solve the problem. To completely resolve these problems, the relevant parties need to have a good cooperative attitude, and in a constructive spirit. Nghe An Newspaper proposed that the Vinh City government and Le Loi ward organize a meeting with relevant parties to resolve the problem, in which, the investor is required to publicly and transparently disclose the design documents related to the project, and answer the questions raised by the Management Board. On the part of the households, they must see their responsibility in fully repaying the debt so that the investor can hand over the assets and the responsibility of managing the apartment complex to the Management Board.

Finally, once again, Nghe An Newspaper would like to thank TECCO Joint Stock Company and readers for their interest in reflecting information to the Newspaper and responding to the information Nghe An Newspaper stated.

TECCO Joint Stock Company - Nghe An Newspaper