Many people worry about losing their deposit and contract when short-term apartment rentals are banned.

Apartment buildings in Ho Chi Minh City have simultaneously announced the use of apartments for short-term accommodation services, following the decision of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.

Tourists wait to check in at an Airbnb-style apartment - Photo: TTD

After the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued Decision No. 26 on the management and use of apartment buildings in Ho Chi Minh City, which includes regulations on the conditions for apartments used as tourist accommodation facilities, many apartment buildings in Ho Chi Minh City have issued regulations not allowing Airbnb-style apartment rentals.

In apartments in District 4, the management board has announced to tighten this activity, some apartments have not allowed guests to enter the apartment for many months.

Residents providing apartment rental services under the Airbnb model have recently submitted a request to the authorities to extend their operating time.

According to the petition, these residents said that in order to operate a short-term apartment rental service, the service provider must invest hundreds of millions of VND in furniture and facilities per apartment.

In many cases, these apartments are rented long-term with a 2-3 month deposit of up to 50-60 million VND/apartment.

Therefore, when suddenly banned, these service providers face serious financial losses when they are fined for contracts with customers, lose deposits, and cannot liquidate invested facilities...

Therefore, residents requested an extension of the regulations to have time to liquidate invested facilities, negotiate the liquidation of apartment lease contracts, arrange deposit compensation or make agreements with customers who have booked in advance.

Ms. Nguyen Thuong Hoai (a service provider using the Airbnb model) said that with this unexpected regulation, service providers were caught off guard and were at risk of going bankrupt, so they wanted to extend the time for the regulation to be applied in order to liquidate assets, as well as have time to find new jobs for the cleaning staff working in the short-term apartment rental service.

At the same time, Ms. Hoai said that instead of banning 100%, if there were regulations to put this rental activity into a framework, with business registration, tax payment and regulations on the rate of short-term rentals, it would help tourists have more options for accommodation.

Meanwhile, a unit providing more than 20 apartments for short-term rental said that due to the large number of apartments, this unit faces the risk of losing all deposits and interior costs, up to nearly 300 million VND/apartment due to the short operating time, not yet recovering the capital invested.

Some other units said that because the contract has a force majeure clause, it will be the basis for negotiating with the landlord to "ask" for the deposit back.

Regarding the management of the exploitation of apartments used as tourist accommodation facilities in apartment buildings, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee stipulates that the conditions for exploiting apartments as tourist accommodation services in apartment buildings must meet the following conditions: the apartment must be an apartment used as a tourist accommodation facility in an apartment building with mixed-use purposes; organizations and individuals doing business in tourist accommodation services; tourist apartments must meet the conditions and standards according to the provisions of the law on tourism; must comply with the provisions of the law on conditional investment and business sectors.

Regarding the management of apartment rental activities, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee stipulates that the rental of apartments in apartment buildings must ensure the correct purpose of use for residence, and absolutely do not use apartments for purposes other than residence.

The rental of an apartment in an apartment building must have a contract signed between the apartment owner and the person wishing to rent the apartment (the apartment rental contract does not have to be notarized or certified).

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhieu-nguoi-lo-mat-tien-coc-den-hop-dong-khi-cam-cho-thue-can-ho-luu-tru-ngan-ngay-20250310145929841.htm