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Recently, there have been many cases of home buyers being delayed in receiving their houses and certificates. So what should home buyers do to force the investor to deliver the house and certificates as promised?
What home buyers care about most is to have their houses delivered on time as committed by the investor. However, in reality, many projects are currently slow to deliver houses and issue certificates to buyers.
Recently, many home buyers in large projects in Binh Thuan, Dong Nai, and Ho Chi Minh City have reported to the authorities that investors are slow to deliver houses as promised. Even several years late or delivering unusable houses, with legal problems.
Most recently, 13 households who bought 13 apartments on the mezzanine and ground floor of Nguyen Quyen apartment building (Binh Tan district) were shocked when the People's Committee of Binh Tri Dong ward informed them that the People's Committee of the district would enforce the demolition of these 13 apartments because the investor had built them illegally.
Too upset because they thought the investor hid information about the authorities' fines for violations and forced demolition to sell the houses to residents, they filed a complaint with the police against the investor.
At the same time, send a petition to the People's Committee of Binh Tan District to have a support plan to ensure the rights of people at risk of losing their homes.
Previously, many homebuyers at the Tan Binh Apartment project (Tan Binh district) also asked the local authorities to intervene when the investor delayed handing over the houses for many years. Or Dai Thanh apartment building (Tan Phu district), because the investor was slow in implementing the project and delayed handing over the project for too long, even though the project was not completed, hundreds of homebuyers still took the risk of moving in to live.
Besides the house delivery not being on schedule and the quality not being as promised, many customers have been given houses to live in for decades but have been waiting for a long time and still do not have the certificate.
For example, thousands of households in Lexington apartment building (Thu Duc City) have received their houses since 2016 but still do not have certificates, making their lives very difficult. Believing that the failure to issue certificates to residents was the fault of the Ho Chi Minh City Land Registration Office, a resident of this apartment building filed a lawsuit with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court.
However, at the trial on March 20, the jury rejected the residents' request on the grounds that the investor had not yet been granted a certificate for the entire project's land. At the same time, the project had changed its planning criteria but the investor had not yet fulfilled its financial obligations for the entire project, so there was no basis to accept the request for a certificate.
The situation of homebuyers not having a certificate is quite common in commercial housing projects in Ho Chi Minh City. In response to the frustration of homebuyers, in July 2023, the City People's Council organized a monitoring of the issuance of certificates.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment reported (at the time of monitoring) that Ho Chi Minh City had up to 335 commercial housing projects with a total of more than 81,000 houses that had not been granted certificates, belonging to 6 different groups of legal problems.
To avoid falling into the situation of not receiving the house and certificate as committed, home buyers need to understand the basic regulations related to home buying and selling to protect their rights.
Giving advice to home buyers, lawyer Huynh Van Nong (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) said that buyers must understand the conditions for housing (apartments, commercial projects...) to be allowed to be bought and sold in order to decide to "put down money".
According to lawyer Nong, the Housing Law and the Real Estate Business Law clearly stipulate the conditions for buying and selling houses. For future houses in projects, the regulations specify a series of conditions.
"However, home buyers only need to pay attention to two conditions: whether the project has a written notice of eligibility to sell future housing from the Department of Construction or not, and whether the project has been guaranteed by a commercial bank with sufficient capacity to guarantee the financial obligations of the investor to ensure the handover of housing according to the committed schedule.
Before signing the contract, the buyer needs to ask the brokerage company and the investor to provide sufficient legal documents proving eligibility to sell," Mr. Nong advised.
In addition, according to Mr. Nong, home buyers should learn more about the capacity and reputation of the investor and project developer before deciding to spend money.
For projects in Ho Chi Minh City, to learn about legal information and progress of commercial housing projects, people can view them on the SXD 247 mobile app.
This is an application developed by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction and put into use since the end of 2019. Project information on the application will be updated regularly to help people easily look up.
In case the project investors are slow to deliver houses as committed or have houses but cannot issue certificates to residents, home buyers need to have appropriate "fighting" measures.
According to lawyer Bui Quoc Tuan (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association), for commercial housing projects that meet the conditions for sale and guarantee, buyers will usually receive their houses on schedule. However, there are many projects that circumvent the law on capital mobilization, and the legal basis for sale is unclear, leading to delays in house delivery.
In case the investor is late in delivering the house, causing damage to the buyer's rights, the buyer should file a complaint with the Department of Construction where the project is located so that this agency can handle the investor's administrative actions (if there is a violation) and provide information back to the buyer.
In addition, buyers can also choose to sue in court or report to the authorities (if they see that the investor is late in delivering the house, showing signs of violating the law).
Regarding the issuance of certificates to residents, according to lawyer Tuan, the first and foremost responsibility for issuing certificates is that of the investor to the residents when the residents have fulfilled their financial obligations to the investor.
"There are many reasons for the delay in issuing certificates. Recently, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has listed 6 groups of problems that cause delays in issuing certificates. Homebuyers can choose to sue the investor or report it to the authorities for criminal proceedings. Recently, some investors have been criminally prosecuted for deceiving customers..." - Lawyer Tuan proposed a solution.
There have been cases in the past where home buyers have used their right to file for bankruptcy when they owe money and delay in handing over their houses. According to many legal experts, this is also a way home buyers can refer to as a strong measure to protect their rights.
That is the case of Ms. Tran Thi Chau Giang (residing in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) - a customer who bought a house at the PetroVietnam Landmark project - who directly filed a petition asking the court to open bankruptcy proceedings against PVC Land.
After the court issued a decision to open bankruptcy proceedings, the company was pressured to pay Ms. Giang back.
Dr. Cao Vu Minh, lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Law, said that disputes between customers and project investors come in many forms. There are disputes arising from civil and administrative matters, but there are also disputes due to investors showing signs of deception and violating criminal law.
"When a dispute occurs, buyers can consult legal experts or authorities to determine the type and extent of the dispute. From there, they can file a complaint, sue or even file a criminal complaint if the investor shows signs of deceiving customers," said Mr. Minh.
