Violations of construction design regulations have been found at nearly two-thirds of the number of apartment buildings recently checked by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction.

The department carried out an inspection at 30 apartment buildings and 19 were discovered breaking rules on construction design, according to an official result.

All 30 apartment buildings break safety regulations on the installation of electricity grids and eight of them have no fund for technical maintenance.

The developers were found failing to secure ownership certificates for ten apartment buildings but they still sold them to buyers. 

The investor of the Binh Minh apartment building in Hiep Phu Ward, District 9 constructed 17 stories even though it was licensed to develop only 15, according to the construction department.

The space designed as the public terrace on the top of the property was modified into rooms and its investor, Binh Minh Construction Company, rents it out as offices and exhibition facilities.

Similarly, the investor of the Thai An apartment building in Trung My Tay Ward, District 12 violated its construction permit for the 17th story because the firm merged eight apartments into four penthouses and therefore added 20 square meters to the floor area.

At the Hung Vuong apartment building in District 5, its developer built four penthouses bigger than designed and thus reduced the public area on the rooftop.

At the MH Babylon apartment building in Tan Phu District, the investor misused over 200 square meters designed for free space to receive sunlight and air.

Importantly, all of the violations had been discovered by local authorities during their checks as construction was completed but they still granted ownership certificates to the developers, according to the construction department.

Officials are not allowed to grant such certificates to the developer of any property that infringes technical design rules, according to existing regulations.

In addition, disputes regarding the use of private and public space have occurred at eight of the 30 apartment buildings, the construction department said.

The department added that those infringements mainly resulted from loose state management.

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