Responding to VTC News , Mr. Pham Duc Toan, General Director of EZ Real Estate Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (EZ Property) affirmed that currently, mini apartments are a concept swap of a type of housing that is not regulated by law.
Mini apartments have no legal basis to be recognized as a type of housing for sale. In reality, most individuals buy land themselves, then apply for a permit to build individual houses, and then divide them into closed apartments for sale. This is a civil agreement, not a sales contract because there are no regulations on selling part of the property.
Mr. Toan cited an example of an individual with a plot of land about 200 - 300 m2 wide. When building high-rise buildings and selling apartments, the owners of these apartments are not granted separate red books, but their names are shared in one red book, in the form of shared assets.
" If any mini apartment building is granted a certificate, it means that it is in the form of a normal commercial apartment project, must establish a project, have an investment policy, pay land use fees... ", Mr. Toan said.
Real estate experts say mini apartments have no legal basis to be recognized as a type of housing for sale. (Photo: Cong Hieu)
Mr. Toan also commented that up to 95% of mini apartments on the market today are built without permission, the investors are licensed to build individual houses but violate the law. Because if they do it according to the regulations, the investors will see losses before they even start.
" If you buy a 200 m2 plot of land for 10 billion, but can only build 5 floors and build 70% of the area, that is 700 m2, the cost of both land and construction is about 22 million VND/m2, while if you build 10 floors, the construction area is 1,400 m2, the cost per square meter is only 14 million VND. If you sell at 25 million VND/m2, it is clear that the investor will not make a profit building 5 floors, but 10 floors will make a huge profit ," Mr. Toan analyzed.
However, if you apply for a permit to build 10 floors, you are required to have fire protection, but the cost of fire protection is very high and it is very difficult to get approval. Specifically, according to regulations, if the floor area exceeds 1,200 m2, the investor is required to have fire protection, so investors will circumvent the law to apply for a permit under 1,200 m2 to consider it a normal house and not need fire protection.
" I think that the widespread development of mini apartments in recent times is due to lax management by authorities at all levels. As I said, up to 95% of mini apartments have violations, but they still exist blatantly because the authorities have turned a blind eye. The construction order management team in the wards is very strict, you just need to bring sandbags and cement bags home and someone will come down to ask you right away, let alone the mini apartment "elephants" calmly building and operating like that ," Mr. Toan expressed.
Many real estate experts also commented that the type of mini apartments has not been specifically regulated yet, there are two cases when buying mini apartments.
In the first case, the products are apartments put into business, the investor must establish a project and must comply with the provisions of the law on investment, construction, planning, land and real estate business. The investor usually takes from 2 to 5 years to complete the project to be eligible to put into business.
In the second case, the investor builds a mini apartment but does not meet the legal requirements on construction, fire prevention and fighting, etc., so it is not licensed. In this case, the buyer of the mini apartment can have his/her name on the red book with the investor and others.
Less fortunate, many people buy and sell with handwritten documents and do not have their names on the land title. There are cases where people have lived there for nearly 10 years but still do not have a land title. This can easily lead to risks if there is a dispute.
Currently, according to the law, buyers of mini apartments can have their ownership rights recognized by the State for each apartment in the house. However, to be granted a red book and to separate the red book, mini apartments must ensure strict legal regulations.
Meanwhile, most mini apartments in Hanoi do not meet those regulations and are therefore not eligible for separate certificates for each apartment.
Mini apartments are springing up everywhere in big cities. (Photo: Cong Hieu)
From a legal perspective, lawyer Nguyen Thi Minh Thu - Hop Nhat Law Firm - Hanoi Bar Association, said that the current law does not have a concept of mini apartments. Because there is no record of this form as a type of commercial housing project, mini apartments are considered as individual houses.
According to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 6 of Decree No. 99/2015/ND-CP of the Government guiding the detailed regulations and implementation of a number of articles of the Housing Law 2014, organizations and individual households with legally established houses, including individual houses designed and built with many floors and many apartments, with a minimum area of 30m2 or more, designed in a closed style, meeting the requirements of apartment buildings, shall be granted a Certificate of Ownership by a competent State agency to the owner of each apartment to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of the owners.
In case the owner sells, leases, donates, or inherits an apartment in this house to another organization, household, or individual eligible to own housing in Vietnam, the right to use the land attached to this house belongs to the common use of the subjects who have purchased, leased, received the gift, or inherited the apartment.
" Thus, for the type of mini apartment - individual housing, if it meets the prescribed conditions, a certificate will be granted for each apartment. If the mini apartment does not satisfy the prescribed conditions, only one certificate will be granted for the entire building and may have the names of the co-owners," said Lawyer Thu.
According to Lawyer Minh Thu, mini apartments, although in the form of individual houses, must still meet legal standards to ensure that the construction is in accordance with planning and fire safety. If the construction violates fire safety regulations leading to serious consequences (damage to people and property), the seller/lessor of the apartment must be responsible for the damage to people and property caused by their violations.
In 2020, the Ministry of Construction issued an official dispatch requesting localities to tighten the management of multi-storey, multi-apartment single-family homes. It pointed out the consequences such as: high risk of fire and explosion, increased population density causing traffic congestion, not ensuring environmental hygiene, urban aesthetics... However, without specific sanctions and regulations, management is still difficult. Many new mini-apartments continue to spring up.
Chau Anh
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