Indignant residents of an condo constructing in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh metropolis have been ordered to take down banners accusing the house owners of neglecting the constructing’s repairs whereas cashing in on years of administration charges.
Residents of the Khang Gia condo block within the metropolis’s Tan Phu district are involved concerning the structural high quality of the constructing and its hearth resistance. They’ve petitioned authorities to make enhancements for eight years however say nothing has been achieved.
Pissed off on the authorities’ inaction, many residents hung banners from their balconies saying “Our petitions have been binned,” “Return our upkeep charges,” “Eight years of inaction on fixing our issues,” and “Give residents the title deeds to their flats.”
Reasonably than answering their complaints or discussing them with residents, the Secretary of the Occasion Committee of Tan Quy ward got here to the condo, backed by police and militia, and ordered residents to take the banners down.
“Tenants hung banners with phrases that don’t offend the federal government and usually are not supposed as incitement,” mentioned Nguyen Manh Hung, who heads the administration board on the condo block.
“However when residents hung them up many native officers got here with police and militia in addition to ward and district civil officers. They tried to storm the flats that put up banners. After I requested what they had been going to do, they mentioned they’d order the residents to take the banners down.”
Hung mentioned the federal government ought to have labored with the condo block’s traders to unravel the issues however as an alternative despatched a mob to attempt to get the banners eliminated. He mentioned that when officers ordered residents to take down the banners, they had been requested once they would tackle the problems. He mentioned the officers remained silent and left.
RFA known as the Individuals’s Committee of Tan Quy ward and Tan Phu district to confirm the data supplied by Nguyen Manh Hung, however not one of the calls was answered.
In accordance with paperwork written by the Division of Development of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis and the Individuals’s Committee of Tan Phu district, Khang Gia Actual Property Improvement and Funding Firm was given permission to construct and lease out a 232 condo block.
The corporate constructed nearly twice as many flats, which residents say has made the constructing structurally unstable.
The native authorities mentioned it had determined to forcibly dismantle 72 flats and business items however nothing has occurred within the eight years because it made the pledge.
Hung mentioned about 1,500 residents have mentioned they really feel insecure as a result of unlawful development on the bottom flooring and mezzanine ranges.
He added that the additional flats and business items don’t have any hearth prevention amenities and due to this fact pose a menace to the complete constructing.
The upkeep payment, which is 2% of the constructing’s valuation, has been stored by the Khang Gia firm, somewhat than handed over to the condo’s administration board to repair elevators, fill in cracks and carry out different repairs.
“Native authorities should examine the investor’s appropriation of the upkeep fund,” Hung mentioned. “Nevertheless, they haven’t achieved that for years. Now the investor has disappeared after being probed for wrongdoings in different initiatives. I don’t know why they didn’t examine. Possibly they’ve covered-up the case for some motive however doing nothing will not be according to the legislation.”
The Lao Dong On-line information website wrote in December 2020 that Khang Gia Firm common director and authorized consultant Trinh Minh Thanh had gone into hiding. It mentioned he was wished for the crime of “monetary fraud” for taking thousands and thousands of Vietnamese dong from folks for flats they didn’t obtain. The corporate workplace is not at its registered enterprise tackle.
RFA known as Khang Gia Actual Property’s hotline, listed on its web site, however the one that answered denied working for the corporate and mentioned it was a flawed quantity.