Director Nguyen Toan Thang of the HCMC Department of Agriculture and Environment first explained how Task Force 5013 has been tackling the roadblocks in housing projects to issue home ownership certificates (pink book) to house owners.
Through its work, the Task Force has identified several primary causes of the delays. First, many developers have made adjustments to their project zoning plans during construction, which incurs additional financial obligations to the state. Under the Land Law, pink books can only be considered for issuance after these obligations are fully met.
Second, some developers haven’t completed the required social infrastructure for their projects, such as schools or parks. Regulations stipulate that this work must be finished and officially approved before the home ownership certificates can be processed.
Third are issues like incomplete technical infrastructure or unrectified construction violations. And a fourth common problem is that the developer has mortgaged the project’s master land-use certificate with a bank.
In every case, the Task Force requires the developer to fulfill their specific obligations to untie these knots together. For instance, if a master certificate is mortgaged, Task Force 5013 compels the developer to pay off the loan and release the mortgage. At that point, authorities can legally subdivide the master title and issue individual pink books to the people who bought homes.
In cases where developers are delinquent in handing over the 2 percent maintenance fee to the building’s management board, the Task Force addresses this in parallel, ensuring they meet this responsibility to protect the buyers’ rights.
As for the matter that developers delay the issuance of pink books for an unreasonably long time, Director Nguyen Toan Thang praised the developers for their receptive attitude to take on board the issues analyzed by Task Force 5013.
The Director stressed that the Task Force’s objective is to help resolve these logjams, not to create more difficulties for the developers. As a result, some projects see their issues cleared up very quickly. Of course, while some cases can be resolved on the spot, others require the developer to complete further procedures over time. In those situations, the priority is to issue the pink books to the residents first, while continuing to oversee the developer until their responsibilities are fully met.
Sadly, in reality, there are still developers who are unwilling to follow the Task Force’s guidance. In those cases, there is a strong need for proper handling methods.
The current Land Law and its guiding decrees provide for some rather strict measures. For example, a developer found in violation can be barred from having any new projects approved in any province or city across the entire country.
Furthermore, details of their violations will be made public on official government websites. The intent here is to ensure that when developers bring a product to market, they are held fully accountable for its quality and the delivery of all promised amenities.
Director Nguyen Toan Thang insisted that he always cautions developers that failure to fulfill their duties will result in this public disclosure, which would make it incredibly difficult for them to undertake new projects. The 2024 Land Law makes this even clearer. Before land is allocated for any new project, authorities must now consult other provinces on that developer’s track record. If violations exist, the process is halted.
Finally, the Director discussed the Task Force’s operational direction for the future, especially following the recent expansion of HCMC.
HCMC has now expanded to include areas from Binh Duong and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces. The Task Force is responsible for resolving all existing project issues within this new, larger territory. It has already proposed to the HCMC People’s Committee that the unit be restructured and expanded with new members to effectively cover these new areas.
In response, the city issued Decision 1645, which supersedes the original Decision 5013, to officially restructure the Task Force to support individuals and organizations in commercial housing development projects in HCMC.
The new membership now includes not only leaders from HCMC’s departments but also the heads of 168 additional wards, communes, and special zones. The general plan is that once the Task Force has cleared the bulk of the backlogged projects, it will conduct a final review, draw lessons learned, and then its operations will be formally concluded. Its duties will then revert to the permanent government agencies responsible for issuing land titles.
