Miserable because of not being granted a pink book

Nearly 1,500 apartments have their pink books "suspended"

Ms. Nguyen Vinh Trang (owner of apartment number 23.06 in the Lexington apartment project, Thu Duc City) bought the above apartment in March 2015 from Nova Lexington Real Estate Joint Stock Company (Nova Lexington Company). In April 2016, Ms. Trang was handed over the apartment by Nova Lexington Company. Although it has been more than 7 years, Ms. Trang's apartment and nearly 1,500 other apartments in this apartment building have not yet been granted a pink book.

Lexington apartment residents sue the Land Registry Office to request a pink book

It is worth mentioning that, according to Ms. Trang, on December 31, 2020, Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, issued document No. 11902 requesting Nova Lexington Company to provide documents to the Land Registration Office (LRO) to issue pink books to apartment buyers in the apartment building. The Department also directed the LRO to receive documents and consider issuing pink books to buyers according to regulations. However, instead of following the instructions of the leaders of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the LRO gave all kinds of reasons not to issue books to Ms. Trang and more than a thousand other apartments in this apartment building. Too upset, Ms. Trang represented the residents to sue the LRO to request the issuance of pink books.

Responding to Thanh Nien, Ms. D.TTH, representing nearly 1,500 households in the apartment building, said that granting pink books for apartment 23.06 in particular and apartments in Lexington apartment building in general is a practical action to protect the legitimate rights of home buyers, contributing to removing obstacles for real estate projects in Ho Chi Minh City. Because not being granted pink books has caused the apartments to lose value miserably, no one buys them even if they are sold cheaply; they cannot be mortgaged to the bank.

"The refusal of the Land Registration Office to issue pink books to people is baseless and affects the legitimate rights of the people. Not only that, this also causes a loss of state budget revenue. Because if pink books are issued according to Document No. 11902, the state budget will collect about 22 billion VND," Ms. D.TTH was indignant.

Ms. Dang Thuy Phuong Thao, representative of Nova Lexington Company, said that the construction project was in accordance with the 1/500 planning approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. The Ministry of Construction has accepted and allowed it to be put into use. The Thu Duc City People's Committee has issued the house certificate. The project is used for its intended purpose and has fulfilled its financial obligations, so it is eligible to issue pink books to home buyers. The failure to issue pink books for nearly 1,500 apartments has led to residents being upset, gathering to organize complaints, and fiercely protesting the company. At the same time, it has affected the company's business situation.

Lexington Apartment is not an isolated case. Hundreds of households at Sunwah Pearl Apartment (Binh Thanh District) are also "threatening" to sue the Land Registration Office for not completing the procedures to issue them pink books. According to a resident here, the project has been handed over and put into use by the investor for several years now, and in April 2022, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approved the land price for the project for the investor to fulfill additional financial obligations. After that, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department repeatedly sent documents to the Land Registration Office requesting to transfer the land's cadastral information so that the Tax Department has a basis to determine and notify the additional financial obligations according to the price approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. However, up to now, the Tax Department has not received any information from the Land Registration Office. This has caused the issuance of pink books for each apartment in this apartment building to drag on.

"We do not understand why the City People's Committee has issued notices and instructions but the subordinates have not implemented them. This has affected the legitimate rights of the people and caused budget losses. Because in addition to collecting taxes and registration fees, we also collected nearly 500 billion VND in additional land use fees from investors," a resident here was upset.

The customer is an honest person, we must give them a certificate.

According to statistics from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, there are currently about 81,000 houses in the city that have not been granted pink books. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment has also grouped projects to issue pink books to home buyers. Of these, 8,372 houses have received tax notices, waiting for owners to pay taxes; 19,958 houses are undergoing procedures for issuing pink books but must be temporarily suspended to fulfill additional financial obligations; 10,277 houses in 18 projects must temporarily suspend procedures for issuing pink books due to inspection and investigation; 8,918 houses have not been granted pink books due to regulations on new types of real estate; 4,657 houses have not been granted pink books due to problems such as redetermining the common land area of ​​the apartment building, collecting money, and reviewing home buyers. In addition, there are 28,907 houses that have not been granted pink books because investors and home buyers have not submitted documents. It is expected that this year the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will issue pink books for about 41,000 houses.

In fact, in recent times, when carrying out the necessary procedures to apply for a pink book, many people were rejected for many reasons: state agencies "soaked" the application, insufficient documents, investors violated construction... However, according to lawyer Tran Minh Cuong, CEO of TMC LAWYERS, residents of Lexington or Sunwah Pearl apartments and many other apartments have paid up to 95% of the apartment purchase price. Customers have also submitted complete applications for pink books, according to the prescribed form. Therefore, the failure of the Real Estate Registration Office to issue pink books to residents is a violation of the law, affecting the legitimate rights and interests of the people.

The fact that people are not granted pink books when there are policies and instructions from competent state agencies to resolve them, makes them suffer the consequences, being victims of the baseless fear and safety mindset of a part of current officials.

Attorney Hoang Van Hung

"It is necessary to separate the investor's violations from the issuance of pink books to home buyers. If the investor is wrong, it needs to be handled, but the pink books cannot be withheld and people cannot be held hostage. Customers are honest people, and need to be issued pink books so that they can stabilize their lives, and they can mortgage their property to the bank to borrow money for business, and especially so that the value of the real estate is not damaged. If the city does not promote and speed up the issuance of certificates, there will likely be many similar lawsuits in the future," said lawyer Cuong.

Lawyer Hoang Van Hung, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, also said that granting pink books to home buyers in apartment buildings like Lexington solves problems but is in line with the state's policy, does not legalize wrongdoing, does not violate the law, and does not infringe upon the state's legitimate rights and interests...

"The key issue here is that the problem is caused by indifferent viewpoints, attitudes, fear of making mistakes, and not daring to do things, not by the law or mechanism. If the government cares about the people's legitimate rights and interests, it will have a solution to solve the problem, in a way that benefits the people," said Lawyer Hung.

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