Towering developer spats linger
14-08-2012
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Tran Vu Hai, managing lawyer of Hanoi Law Company, said many homebuyers did not carefully consider contracts when buying accommodation.
“This is a very big disadvantage for the customer, which led to many conflicts,” Hai said.
Nguyen Hong Minh, general director of Property Management Company, said that all purchasing or capital mobilisation contracts so far were drafted by the project’s developers, therefore buyers had no rights to change or adjust articles which could be unfavourable to them.
Minh said house purchasing contracts often did not regulate a building’s quality, but only clarified which materials were used in the project.
“This is a hole and policy-makers must regulate detail standards to clearly define the level of apartment buildings and these standards must be contained in the contract,” Minh said.
BQH and Associates lawyer Bui Quang Hung said that conflicts relating to the purchasing contracts between developers and buyers had blighted the market.
In almost contracts, Hung said, developers had regulated unfavourable conditions for the buyers and those conditions were actually in contradiction with the current regulations.
Often developers could kick buyers out of their units if the unit’s owners did not pay management fees in three consecutive months and the developers had the right to use those units for leasing to compensate for the fee.
Hung said buyers often did not clearly understand regulations when signing contracts.
Mostly buyers said that they could easily have some benefit when re-selling the units but did not care about the contract’s articles and they were easily to bear the unfavourable status.
Homebuyer Nguyen Minh Nguyet who is looking to purchase an apartment at the Golden Palace project in Hanoi, said customers often paid little attention to the contract before deciding to buy a unit.
Nguyet told VIR she was not satisfied with many articles on the contract compiled by Golden Palace developer and refused to buy.
Among those was an article in which the developer ensured to pay the customer 10 per cent of interest rate per year if there was a delay in the project’s hand-over day.
“Customers must be cleverer and use their rights in the maximum and they can use layers whenever they cannot solve the problem,” Hung said.
In order to solve this problem, Ministry of Construction (MoC) is setting up a law on high-rise buildings, to deal with all problems related to the unit purchasing in high-rise buildings.
However, lawyers suggested that as the law is being drafted, the MoC should issue a “High-rise Apartment Handbook” to outline a basic legal system for developers and residents.
