Many people who bought Hausbelo apartments on paper lost hundreds of millions of dong.

HCMC People who deposited to buy Hausbelo apartments (Thu Duc City) said they lost hundreds of millions of dong, had their capital misappropriated for 4 years but the project could not be implemented.

In recent weeks, many customers who bought apartments in the Phu Huu Ward housing project in Thu Duc City (Hausbelo) have come to the headquarters of AHC Minh Son Company Limited on Dien Bien Phu Street, Binh Thanh District to demand their houses and compensation for damages. The reason is that the company announced that it could not carry out the project and was forced to liquidate the contract.

Mr. Kien, a customer who bought a Hausbelo apartment from an internal quota transferred by an employee of AHC Minh Son Company, said he had paid 10% of the house value; and had to pay the difference of 260 million VND. Now the project cannot be implemented, he only got his deposit back, no compensation, and hundreds of millions of the difference were lost.

"AHC Minh Son Company has just now said that they are not the investor and are not the legal documents holder of this project. I am shocked and feel deceived," said Mr. Kien.

The fence of the Hausbelo project still retains the project name and announces EZLand (the parent company of AHC Minh Son Company) as the project investor. Photo: Trung Tin — The fence of the Hausbelo project still retains the project name and announces EZLand (the parent company of AHC Minh Son Company) as the project investor. Photo: *Trung Tin*

Mr. Kien is just one of hundreds of customers who have deposited to buy this project and are in the same situation. On April 20, dozens of customers who bought Hausbelo apartments also gathered at the office of AHC Minh Son Company to demand compensation for damages.

Ms. Ly - who bought back 3 deposit agreements for apartments in the Hausbelo project in 2021 - said that she paid a very high difference, but her contracts did not receive late interest payments, only received the principal, so she suffered great losses. She requested AHC Minh Son to compensate for the deposit at a rate of one to three, meaning compensation of 3 times the principal amount the customer paid to compensate for the losses.

Mr. Hung also said that he bought back the deposit agreement for this project's apartment in 2019 with a difference of 250 million VND. Now he requested the company to return the deposit and the difference with interest from the date of capital mobilization to the official refund date.

In the case of Ms. Luom buying a deposit agreement at the end of 2022 (quite late), but AHC Minh Son did not clearly inform her, and the company even signed a new agreement with the customer with a clause not supporting late interest. Therefore, she requested this company to compensate for the damage one for one, and pay interest from the date of receiving the money to the date of refund.

The fenced land announced as the site for the Hausbelo project is still vacant as of the first quarter of 2023. Photo: Trung Tin — The fenced land announced as the site for the Hausbelo project is still vacant as of the first quarter of 2023. Photo: *Trung Tin*

According to VnExpress , the Hausbelo project, although only a house on paper, with 888 apartments, was sold out in 2019. According to the invoice information provided by customers, they transferred the deposit directly to the project developer, AHC Minh Son. Currently, the person who deposited to buy an apartment from the beginning with this company (customer F1), will be refunded the principal of 10% according to the deposit agreement, plus 8% interest after more than 4 years of waiting.

While many buyers who repurchased this apartment deposit agreement had to pay a huge difference (temporarily called F2, F3, Fn customers), they suffered a double loss when they lost the entire contract transfer fee and did not receive 8% interest. The difference for customers who repurchased 1-2 bedroom apartments and apartments with gardens was from 100-230 million VND, while the difference for ground floor shophouses was up to 500 million VND per apartment.

In response to the above developments, Ms. Pham Thi Minh Kha, Director of AHC Minh Son Company Limited, admitted that the company was not the investor of the Hausbelo project, but the enterprise had agreed to receive the transfer of the project from Minh Son Investment and Construction Company Limited (the investor) 8 years ago.

The transfer value at the time of 2015-2016 was nearly 147 billion VND, the company has paid 60% of the amount according to the progress but has not yet been transferred as the project investor. Up to now, the total estimated amount of additional payment by AHC Minh Son, paying for the legal costs arising from the project for Minh Son Construction Company has reached 150 billion VND, which is larger than the project transfer value.

In addition to acquiring the project, AHC Minh Son also signed a service agreement with the old investor to become the exclusive project developer, which is the legal basis for signing a deposit agreement with customers who want to buy an apartment in the future.

Ms. Kha explained that according to the original transfer agreement, the old investor was obliged to complete the legal procedures to transfer the Hausbelo project with commercial functions to AHC Minh Son Company before January 31, 2016, the 1/500 planning procedures before March 31, and the construction permit procedures before October 31 of the same year. However, the old investor kept delaying these timelines, avoiding confirming the project progress until the end of March this year.

Director of AHC Minh Son added that due to realizing that the project's legal procedures were too slow and that the connection with the old investor had not been successful for a long time, the company was forced to make the decision to refund deposits to customers.

Accordingly, she said that those who have accompanied the company from the beginning and registered their desire to buy the Hausbelo project according to Notice No. 1 will have their deposits refunded and interest paid at 8%. In cases of secondary difference purchases, AHC Minh Son will only refund the deposit but will not have enough financial resources to compensate for damages including interest at 8%, one for one or one for three according to their wishes. "Because we also suffered too much damage in this project due to the old investor's breach of trust and limited resources," she said.

Ms. Kha also affirmed that AHC Minh Son Company and Minh Son Construction Company are two different entities, do not have any relationship in terms of shareholder structure, are not joint ventures or associations, and have separate business registration certificates.

AHC Minh Son leaders affirmed that the company is directly responsible to customers who signed the project deposit agreement and will find a solution to compensate the buyers by suing Minh Son Construction Company in court at the end of May. The damages that customers have reported to the company will be collected and presented in court to have a basis for a specific compensation decision. As of May 13, there are about 192 apartments in this case that have not signed the liquidation agreement to receive the deposit back.

VnExpress also contacted the leaders of Minh Son Construction Company, the investor of this project, but has not received a response from the company.

Regarding the above incident, Mr. Nguyen Loc Hanh, General Director of Ngoc Chau A Company - a person with experience in distributing many projects - said that AHC Minh Son is not the project investor but has signed deposit agreements, received deposits, announced prices, introduced products as an investor, which is not in accordance with regulations. This behavior can be understood as capital mobilization contrary to the Law on Real Estate Business.

Mr. Hanh explained that the role of the project development and product distribution unit is only to act as an intermediary between the investor and the customer, collecting money on behalf of the investor if authorized and transferring the money back to the investor. On the other hand, the project development unit must be responsible for providing transparent legal information and project progress to the buyer. The only amount of money that the project distribution unit can receive is the brokerage fee (also known as commission).

Lawyer Dang Hoan My, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, also stated that the Hausbelo project is a type of real estate that will be formed in the future. Signing an agreement to receive deposits from customers is understood as an act of capital mobilization. The project does not have complete legal documents, so this capital mobilization (receiving deposits) is not in accordance with regulations.

According to Ms. My, all capital mobilization agreements from future projects must be signed by the project investor. The service agreement between AHC Minh Son Co., Ltd. and Minh Son Investment and Construction Co., Ltd. regarding the exclusive development of the project in 2018 also lacks a legal basis.

In addition, she said it is necessary to clarify whether AHC Minh Son Company transferred customers' money to Minh Son Investment and Construction Company or not. If so, both companies must resolve the customers' rights.

In case the compensation agreement is unsuccessful, if Hausbelo customers want to get their money back, they can sue AHC Minh Son Company Limited, then Minh Son Investment and Construction Company Limited may be implicated. If customers want to receive the house, they have to wait for the project to be completed, then they can ask the company to compensate for the delay in handover.

Vu Le

Source link