Overdue project, residents react after buying houses from Trung Nguyen

Buying a house in a Trung Nguyen project in Dak Lak, some residents have filed a petition with the authorities because they believe that the investor did not fulfill the initial commitment and the project is overdue but the items are not synchronized.

Project 2 time adjustment

The People's Committee of Dak Lak province has just directed relevant departments and Trung Nguyen Investment Joint Stock Company (Trung Nguyen Company) to resolve the petitions of households buying houses at the Suoi Xanh Coffee Eco-Cultural Urban Project (Suoi Xanh Project).

In December 2016, Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee approved the investment of Suoi Xanh Project with a total area of over 45 hectares, divided into 2 phases (phase 1 with 19.8 hectares and phase 2 with 25.6 hectares). The total investment of the project is over 2,700 billion VND.

Suoi Xanh project is invested and built in Buon Ma Thuot city (Photo: Thuy Diem).

In October 2017, Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee allocated more than 16 hectares and leased 3 hectares of land for Trung Nguyen Company to implement phase 1 of the project.

The Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee has twice decided to adjust the construction time and progress. The deadline for implementing the project in both phases is December 31, 2022. However, to date, Trung Nguyen Company has not completed the items of the project in phase 1 according to regulations and the land for phase 2 has not been allocated by Dak Lak province.

For phase 1, after implementing the construction of a number of projects: townhouses, townhouses combined with commercial services, roads, entertainment facilities but not yet starting construction of other educational and commercial projects... Trung Nguyen Company signed a contract to buy and sell houses and handed over houses to residents.

Ms. NTT (39 years old, residing in Buon Ma Thuot city) said that in March 2022, she signed a contract with Trung Nguyen Company to buy a house at Suoi Xanh Project with a value of 8.6 billion VND. Ms. T. paid 50% of the contract value in advance, about 4.3 billion VND, and will continue to pay according to the progress.

After that, Ms. T. and many residents discovered that the project was behind schedule, had not completed the technical infrastructure as advertised, and did not commit to a deadline for customers to receive pink books.

Recently, Ms. T. and residents discovered in the official dispatch of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (TN-MT) of Dak Lak province issued at the end of November 2023, that the Suoi Xanh Project did not meet the conditions for transferring land use rights, selling houses, and construction works according to regulations. Therefore, Ms. T. stopped paying and waited for Trung Nguyen Company to resolve.

"If I pay late, I will be fined 5%, so far, I will have about 1.8 billion VND deducted from the amount I have paid if I do not continue to buy the house. Because I feel my rights are affected, I and some other residents signed a petition asking the authorities to intervene and clarify," Ms. T. spoke up.

The official dispatch of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment causes misunderstanding?

In Official Dispatch No. 3714 dated November 16, 2023 of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dak Lak, it is stated that the progress of the Suoi Xanh Project has not met the requirements when the construction time and progress of the entire project are completed by December 31, 2022.

"The investor has not completed the technical and social infrastructure, so it is not eligible to transfer land use rights, sell houses and construction works," the document clearly stated.

Speaking with Dan Tri reporter, a representative of Trung Nguyen Company confirmed that the unit has completed procedures to request adjustment of project progress but has not received a response from Dak Lak province authorities.

Regarding the delay, a representative of Trung Nguyen Company said that the project implementation process was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the project had to be suspended for more than 2 years to serve the inspection work according to regulations.

A representative of Trung Nguyen Company confirmed that the unit has met the conditions to sign contracts for the sale and purchase of future housing with customers according to regulations.

Trung Nguyen believes that Official Letter 3714 of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is unclear and can easily cause misunderstandings among customers about the conditions for selling houses with the condition of being granted a Certificate of Land Use Rights (pink book), house ownership rights and other assets attached to the land.

Trung Nguyen explained that the company is not qualified to issue pink books to customers, meaning it is not qualified to separate small pink books, while the project's general pink book is available. The reason for not separating the books is because it has not decided to adjust the project's progress. Therefore, Trung Nguyen is handling the problems to continue implementing the project.

A leader of the Dak Lak Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that the Department has not received any response from Trung Nguyen Company regarding the content of Official Dispatch 3714 and affirmed that this Official Dispatch is completely in accordance with legal regulations.

"Trung Nguyen is not qualified to transfer land use rights and is not qualified to issue pink books because the infrastructure has not been completed and the project is now overdue," said the leader of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to information from the Land Fund Development Center of Buon Ma Thuot City, regarding phase 2 of the Suoi Xanh Project, the unit had sent a document requesting Trung Nguyen Company to provide related documents, but the company had not yet cooperated, therefore, this unit had not yet carried out any procedures.

In 2023, Trung Nguyen Company must pay an additional 103 billion VND in land use fees at the Suoi Xanh Project due to incorrect land price calculation.

Specifically, in October 2017, the Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee decided to hand over the land use rights of more than 19.3 hectares (phase 1) to Trung Nguyen Company without auction, and the company paid 625 billion VND to the state budget for the land area assigned to implement the project.

After that, the Central Inspection Committee concluded regarding a number of violations at the Suoi Xanh Project and requested Dak Lak to re-determine the land price for this project.

Duong Chung (According to Dantri.com.vn)

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