HÀ NỘI — Authorities in Hà Nội are committed to solving problems regarding the granting of land use rights and house ownership certificates to people who bought apartments in illegal projects by next year.

The Ministry of Construction (MoC) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) have set up inspection teams to review the issue and put forward solutions.

In Hà Nội, there are many apartment building projects that violate their original plans and design, so house buyers could not be granted certificates of land use rights and home-ownership, reported the Hà Nội mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper.

This has affected apartment buyers, according to the paper.

Lê Phong Hoan, the owner of an apartment in Hà Đông District, is one example.

When refused a certificate of land use rights and ownership for the apartment, Hoan knew his apartment building was on the list of projects which violated their approved planning.

“I bought the apartment in 2013, and was provided all related papers by the investor,” Hưng told the paper.

“But when I submitted an application for land use rights and ownership, I was told that the authority had no documents relating to the project. Therefore, I could not be granted the certificate,” said Hưng.

Hoan’s building is part of the Bemes apartments and shopping centre, which was due to comprise two buildings.

But the investor built Hoan’s building – the third – without permission.

This means many buyers were sold unlicensed apartments.

Similarly, the Linh Đàm apartment buildings in Hoàng Mai District were originally designed to have 12 blocks of 27 floors each, but the investor built 36 or 40 floors without permission.

Additionally, many investors had mortgaged the buildings to get loans for other projects, meaning buyers were unable to complete land use procedures or get ownership certificates.

“In the contract, the investor committed to complete all documents for the certificate,” said Vũ Thái Ất, who bought an apartment in Hà Đông District.

“But three years since receiving the apartment, the application procedures have not yet been fulfilled,” he said.

The lack of certificates means apartment buyers could not mortgage their property or use it as collateral for bank loans or complete inheritance procedures.

Many people had to sell their apartments below their real value because they did not have the proper certificates.

To implement the instructions from the Hà Nội People’s Committee, the city’s Natural Resources and Environment Department has set up two inspection teams to review apartment building projects which lacked certificates of land use rights and house ownership.

According to the department, as of November last year, there are 135 projects which have violated regulations; including changing approved designs or transferring the buildings to other investors without permission.

The projects included a total of 62,200 apartments, of which 33,204 had received certificates, while the other 29,071 lacked necessary documents.

Trần Anh Dũng, director of Hà Nội Land Registration Office, said that people had lived in the buildings for years.

They asked many times to be granted the certificates but failed, said Dũng.

In fact, the municipal Party Committee had asked relevant agencies to deal with the issue.

However, the current legal system on investment, construction and land still has many inconsistencies, the director said.

The MoC and MoNRE have suggested measures to deal with the issue after a working session with the municipal authority.

The certificates will be granted to those who have paid all money to the investors, even though the investors had not yet fulfilled their financial obligations to the State.

For projects with violations of approved designs and planning, the certificates will be considered for those who bought apartments in approved areas. — VNS