What’s happening at Feliz En Vista apartment?

Feliz En Vista (Feliz Apartment) is a luxury apartment complex of Capita Land in ward Thanh My Loi, right next to the People’s Committee of Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City. Residents of Feliz en Vista apartment building are living in a suffocating situation due to disagreements with the Management Board in choosing a management and operation unit. What’s happening at Feliz En Vista apartment?

Feliz En Vista apartment management board makes decision without following residents’ wishes

According to the urgent appeal of the residents Feliz En Vista apartment building, in recent days, residents here have been “storming” to protest the fact that the Management Board (MB) deliberately ignored the current management and operation unit, Savills, to choose the second unit, Visaho. Previously, at the annual apartment building conference combined with the consolidation of the BMB organized by the People’s Committee of Thanh My Loi ward and the Feliz BMB on October 2, 13, Savills was the management and operation unit voted by the majority of residents (accounting for 10%). Meanwhile, Visaho was only the second unit (out of a total of 2024 participating units selected for the next round) with only 53,5%.

The reason given by the Management Board is that it could not negotiate a contract with the first unit, Savills, which includes a number of typical prerequisites: Savills must transfer the Operation Fund to the Management Board for direct management, and must commit to a time limit for refunding the excess Corporate Income Tax (CIT) paid at Feliz (over 1,3 billion VND) to the Operation Management Fund account, and must commit to obtaining the opinions of over 51% of owners/residents for major issues of the building that need to be approved.

According to the official response from Savills, the holding and management of the Operation Fund by the Management Board does not ensure legality according to Circular 05/2024/TT-BXD. Savills cited that the operation management unit has the right to collect and manage this fund. This has been stipulated in current legal documents, and at the same time, it is necessary to have consultation from competent authorities to ensure the legality and transparency in fund management. At the same time, Savills will also send an official dispatch to consult the People’s Committee of Thanh My Loi Ward on this matter. In case the local government has a document confirming that the Management Board has the right to manage the Operation Fund and collect operation management service fees from residents, as well as the operation management unit is allowed to implement sanctions if residents do not pay fees into the operation management fund account managed by the Management Board, Savills will hand over the Operation Fund to the Management Board and follow the instructions.

Regarding the commitment to refund the excess corporate income tax, Savills confirmed the expected time to complete the dossier to recover the difference in corporate income tax in Official Letter No. 308/2024/Savills-PM, signed and sealed by the representative of Savills’ Board of Directors, Ms. Dang Anh Thu – Director of Finance and Administration to ensure full legality. Accordingly, Savills affirmed its commitment to support the Board of Directors in working with the tax authorities to carry out the necessary procedures to recover the difference in tax paid to the project due to different instructions from the tax authorities during the application process, with the expected completion date before April 30, 4.

Regarding the content that the Management Board believes that Savills has not committed to making every effort to get the opinions of at least 51% of residents for all major works of the building, Savills responded in Official Letter No. 325/2024/Savills-PM that the company is committed to making every effort to get the opinions of residents as much as possible within its capacity and authority. However, getting the opinions of at least 51% of residents is not easy based on the objective reality at Feliz as well as other apartment projects in general, because getting the opinions of residents depends a lot on the number of residents actually living in the building, as well as the level of interest and feedback of residents. Therefore, the Management Board’s request for Savills to commit to this number is not consistent with reality. However, the above responses from this operating company and some other contents were assessed by the Board of Directors as not meeting the requirements, so the next company was selected, Visaho, which agreed to all the conditions set forth.

The management board is constantly being protested by residents.

According to Feliz residents, when the current management and operation contract only has a few days left (expiring on November 30, 11), on November 2024, Savills announced that it had received a document from the Management Board confirming that it would not renew the management and operation service contract after it expired, and requested that the handover be completed within 25 days. This once again created a wave of indignation from many residents who supported the implementation according to the majority vote at the recent Apartment Building Conference (HNNCC). Residents said that preparing and handing over a project with 11 apartments within 5 working days was very risky, causing insecurity and disorder, affecting the safety and stability in the lives of thousands of residents living in the project.

It is known that the petition sent to the competent authorities denouncing the violations of the Feliz Management Board was collected and sent by residents on November 25 and 26; at the same time, continuing to call for the expansion and cancellation of residents’ authorization to the Management Board at HNNCC to not allow the Management Board to carry out acts that show signs of violating the law. Specifically, the Management Board unilaterally selected the operating unit without a majority vote of the residents, lacking transparency and showing signs of collusion when negotiating in parallel with both winning and losing bidders… According to Ms. T. – the owner of an apartment at Feliz apartment building, on the afternoon of November 11, a large number of residents gathered and made a record requesting the cancellation of residents’ authorization to the Management Board, in order to not allow arbitrarily signing contracts on behalf of residents with new management and operating units without the consent of the residents.

The current worrying issue is that while residents request to maintain the current operating status, waiting for instructions from the State management agency, the Management Board continues to bring in a new management unit, Visaho, to proceed with the handover. According to residents, this could potentially lead to unnecessary disputes and even clashes with residents here when many residents still firmly disagree with changing the management and operating unit that was chosen at HNNCC with over 53,5% of the votes without going through the residents’ voting opinions.

Recently, disputes between residents and the Management Board in various forms have become familiar in apartment projects across the country, typically the Management Board abusing its power, violating bidding regulations, even misusing, losing, and embezzling maintenance and operation funds… With the turmoil in the selection of a management and operation unit at the high-end apartment building Feliz en Vista, residents here are hoping that the authorities will soon intervene to restore peace to the lives of the people in this project called “Happiness”.

Sources: congan.com.vn