Resolving legal conflicts about mini apartments

Not legalized

Because they are under the name of “individual housing”, all “mini apartments” are currently not bound by the pre-inspection and post-inspection procedures of the Department of Construction as with other normal apartments. This is a warning bell, requiring the management agency to immediately have urgent solutions to effectively prevent and stop fires and explosions, ensuring the safety of life, health and property for people and businesses.

According to delegate Hoang Van Cuong, member of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, in current laws, there is no law regulating "mini apartments". This is a "loophole" in the law.

“The investor is responsible for the construction and operation of substandard “mini apartments”, followed by the responsibility of the State management agency in approval management. The agencies need to review the “mini apartments” that have been built, if they do not meet standards, the investor must repair them to have an escape route, a place for entertainment and public activities”, Mr. Hoang Van Cuong emphasized.

“Absolutely do not legalize ‘mini apartments’ in the Housing Law,” National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue stated his opinion in a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee, and assigned the Law Committee to review the draft Housing Law (amended) to not legalize this type of housing.

In recent years, there has been confusion and lack of transparency regarding the legal nature of “mini apartments”. The question is, is this a single-family home or an apartment building? Under current regulations, if a household has a plot of land of several hundred square meters, it only needs to apply for a building permit for a regular single-family home. The authority to grant the permit is the District People’s Committee within about 2 months.

Meanwhile, real estate businesses that want to invest and trade in apartment products must establish a project and carry out investment procedures according to the Investment Law, Land Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law with the following procedures: Approval of investment policy, land allocation, land lease, land valuation and performance of financial obligations on land, appraisal of feasibility study reports, basic design, fire prevention and fighting (PCCC) approval, issuance of construction permits, acceptance of PCCC, acceptance of works eligible for operation... In reality, an apartment project usually takes at least 2 years to complete legal procedures.

This “unfair competition” in legal procedures leads to households investing in “mini apartments” having an advantage over real estate businesses.

From the unfortunate consequences of the fire at the "mini apartment building" in Hanoi, many opinions said that it is necessary to tighten the management of multi-storey, multi-apartment housing. Presenting the report explaining, accepting and revising the draft Law on Housing (amended) to the National Assembly, Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung said: The drafting committee has received many opinions suggesting that it is necessary to regulate more strictly the development, management and use of multi-storey, multi-apartment housing of individuals, especially the requirements on construction standards and fire prevention and fighting.

To overcome the shortcomings, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee proposed to revise Article 57 of the draft Law on Housing (amended) to be more stringent. In particular, for multi-storey houses and multi-apartment houses of individuals, if they have 2 floors or more and have a scale of less than 20 apartments for rent, they must meet the requirements on construction standards as prescribed by the Minister of Construction; must be designed, approved for fire prevention and fighting and implement fire prevention and fighting safety management measures.

In case an individual builds a house with 2 floors or more for sale or rent-to-own, or a house with 2 floors or more and a scale of 20 apartments or more for rent, he/she must establish a business, prepare an investment project and meet the conditions to be the investor of a housing construction investment project.

Create opportunities for people to have homes but do not loosen management

At the 6th Session of the 15th National Assembly, delegate Hoang Duc Thang expressed concern: “Closing loopholes in management is an urgent task, but tightening too much will push poor workers and students out into the streets when they do not have the conditions to live in apartments that meet high requirements.” According to delegate Hoang Duc Thang, in recent times, Vietnam has made many efforts to design many attractive policies to support investors in building social housing, but very few businesses are interested, and buyers have difficulty accessing them because of inappropriate prices and cumbersome procedures.

“It is necessary to create conditions for low-income people to have a place to live, study and work, but that does not mean loosening the management of infrastructure construction and urban management of housing, boarding houses and unsafe apartment buildings. Through monitoring many rental facilities, most of them do not ensure fire prevention and fighting. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate strict management, clarify the responsibilities of functional agencies and amend the Law in the near future,” suggested delegate Leo Thi Lich (Bac Giang).

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy proposed: People's housing needs must be guaranteed but the violations of "mini apartments" in the Housing Law must not be legalized. The Government continues to implement preferential solutions to clear the supply of social housing and affordable commercial housing; direct inspection agencies to inspect "mini apartments", besides inspection to detect violations is very necessary but timely guidance must be provided to people, with solutions to prevent fire safety.

“In the Resolution of the 6th Session of the 15th National Assembly, there should be requirements on ensuring fire and explosion safety in general, including fire and explosion safety for “mini apartments”, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy emphasized.