In fact, many apartment buildings in Hanoi have problems arising related to common and private use areas. The conflicts mainly come from the parties not being able to define and agree which areas are common and which are private, leading to conflicts between the parties.
Regarding this issue, the State's legal documents related to the management and operation of apartment buildings have provided quite detailed and complete regulations. Most recently, Circular 05 of the Ministry of Construction, a document consolidating documents related to the management and operation of apartment buildings, has been issued.
According to Ms. Vu Kieu Hanh, Director of Real Estate Management, Savills Hanoi, conflicts in apartment projects originate from the lack of completeness and transparency in documents regulating the use of common and private areas when investors develop and construct projects; although they have been clearly defined in legal documents. This leads to ambiguity in determining ownership and usage rights later.
Many apartment buildings in Hanoi have problems arising related to shared and private areas, especially disputes over parking areas. (Photo: BG)
“It is necessary to understand that all areas related to the structural system, corridors, common walkways, and inseparable systems are common areas of ownership. However, one of the areas that often encounters disputes in apartment buildings is the parking area,” Ms. Hanh added.
According to the Housing Law 2014, the areas for parking bicycles, vehicles for the disabled, two-wheeled motor vehicles, and three-wheeled motor vehicles are jointly owned and used by the apartment owners. As for the car parking areas, the apartment tenants/buyers can buy or sublease them.
"In reality, in most apartment buildings, the revenue from the motorbike parking area (shared ownership) will be returned to the building's operating fund. However, how this area is planned, how much is the shared ownership area, and from there, determining the specific revenue per vehicle is still unclear. This gives rise to endless debates," Ms. Hanh analyzed.
To resolve conflicts and limit impacts on the following stages, Ms. Hanh said that investors need to anticipate and correctly calculate common and private areas from the design stage, as well as clearly present them in the sales contract and the construction investment economic and technical report. The management board needs to have access to all completion records of the project according to the provisions of Consolidated Document 05/VBHN-BXD Circular on regulations on management and use of apartment buildings.
In addition, the Investor needs to agree with relevant parties to establish rules for common areas and facilities. From there, make a general agreement and consensus on the contents related to rights, use and protection of assets to avoid disputes arising.
The common and private areas of the project are also partly related to determining the project service fee that each owner needs to contribute. According to Ms. Hanh, the regulation on the maximum service fee in apartment projects with elevators in the city must not exceed 16,500 VND/m2/month.
The service fee is also stipulated to be included in the sales contract, so buyers need to refer to the fee level that the owners need to contribute. Because, when put into operation, the general mentality of residents is always towards transparency in the fee level and how to use the money from the service fee that they have paid. This requires investors and management units to pay close attention to this issue.
Illustration photo. (Source: CP)
Savills experts believe that to determine the appropriate service price, investors and management units should consider the factors that directly affect the cost of making up the apartment building service price. This cost will depend on the scale, architectural features, design and equipment of the project. After having all the necessary information, the management unit can calculate the operating cost that makes up the service fee.
Although these are very small points in the chain of work of the operation management unit, they directly affect the unit price of the operation fee. Therefore, the management needs to be strict and carried out by a professional operation management unit to be able to support both investors and residents to optimize management costs as well as transparency in activities and management services at the project.
It can be seen that, in the trend of strong development of the housing market in Vietnam, investors need to pay attention to the management and operation work and consider it as an added value for the project as well as a solution to avoid the risk of disputes between related units. The selling price of a real estate product is planned by the investor from the stage before the project is formed and put into operation.
"However, the factor of maintaining the price depends on the quality of project management and operation. The role of the management and operation unit therefore becomes important in the context of the increasing number of urban areas with huge populations and large supply," Ms. Hanh emphasized.
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