In order to create favourable conditions for owners in apartment projects to easily communicate, receive information, mail, contact, commercial transactions, civil transactions and convenience in the administrative management of the Investor. Therefore, the determination of the floors and units numbering is prescribed by law.
>> Read more: Procedures For Applying For Units Numbering In Ho Chi Minh City here.
However, it seems that the Rules of the determination of the floors and units numbering are simple, easy to implement and follow. But the determination of the floors and units numbering, in reality, each administrative agency apply a different. This not only makes it difficult for Investors to comply with the law but also makes residents of apartment projects miserable.
The reason for the above issue is that there are two different legal documents currently exist, in particular, the Decision No. 05/2006 /QD-BXD dated March 8th, 2006 of Ministry of Construction promulgating the Regulation on the numbering of houses and sticking of house number plates (“Decision 05/QD-BXD”) and the Decision No. 22 /QD-UBND dated May 31st, 2012 of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee promulgating Regulation on the numbering of houses and sticking of house number plates in Ho Chi Minh City (“Decision 22/QD-UBND”), with different provisions, accordingly:
- For the determination of the numbering of floors in apartment projects:
Decision No. 05/QD-BXD prescribes the numbering of floors of apartment buildings according to the principle of taking the direction from the lower floor to the upper floor, starting from the first floor of the house (excluding the basement) and taken from small numbers to big numbers. The ground floor can be named instead of the first floor, then the next floors from the bottom are numbered as the 1st floor, 2nd floor … n-1 floor.
In case of an apartment building with an underground floor, the number of underground floors shall be numbered according to the principle of taking direction from the top floor to the underground floor, starting from the ground floor closest to the first floor or ground floor of the house. Use natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …, n where n is the total number of underground floors of the house) to number the number of underground floors, from small to large numbers. To distinguish them from floors, write the symbol N before the number of underground floors (for example, N1, N2, N3 …).
Also, according to the provisions of Decision No. 22/QD-UBND on the numbering of apartment floors as follows: The numbering of floors is struck from the bottom to the top according to the natural numbers, starting from 0 for the ground floor, number 1 for 1st floor (excluding basements). In case the apartment block has a basement, number the basement in the top-down direction, starting from the top basement close to the ground floor, taking numbers from H1, H2, H3 …
Thus, the numbering of floors of an apartment building from the bottom to the top is different, the Ministry of Construction calculates the floor starting from the first floor, while the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee starts from the ground floor (or 0). In addition, it can be seen that for the basement symbol, the Ministry of Construction and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee also have different provisions on the symbol, specifically, the Ministry of Construction stipulates the symbol N, and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee specified symbol is H.
- For the determination of the units numbering:
Under the provisions of Decision No. 05/QD-BXD, the units numbering is based on the principle of using a series of natural numbers from small to large in a clockwise direction, starting from the first apartment on the left of who walked up to that floor. The two tens and units digits indicate the units numbering, the two thousand and hundreds of digits indicate the floors numbering.
Under Decision No. 22/QD-UBND, the units numbering is composed of the number of floors and the ordinal number of the apartment, including two digits which are numbered according to the natural number, starting from 1 for the first apartment to be calculated from the main staircase and the common corridor. Between the number of floors and the units numbering separated by a dot (.).
Accordingly, there is a difference in determining the units numbering between the Ministry of Construction and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee. For example, apartment number 05 on the 3rd floor, the Ministry of Construction regulations numbered 0305 while the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee is 03.05. In addition, according to practical experience, for apartments with many Blocks, the distinction of apartments between the Block by the capital Vietnamese letters such as A, B, C …
So which path is right for the rules about floors and units numbering, need a joint agreement
The inconsistency between the regulations of the above management agencies has existed for a long time and there have been many suggestions for adjustment. However, up to now, there is no unified legal document. The cause of this inconsistency, can also be understood, because people in the South often call ground floor, then the floors 1, 2, 3 … and people in the North often called the ground floor is the first floor, then to the remaining floors. However, the management agencies are unable to survive this inconsistency in the legal documents, because both difficult for the people and difficult for investors.
Accordingly, before constructing the apartment building, the investor must submit the drawing to the Ministry of Construction for appraisal, approval, and issuance of construction permits, so the investor is required to comply with the regulations on the numbering of apartments as a Decision 05/QD-BXD. But when the project is completed, to the stage of completion, the numbering of houses, application for a certificate of apartment ownership for the residents, the investor must follow the principle of numbering floors, the number of houses approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee as Decision 22/QD-UBND.
As such, it is not advisable to continue to prolong this situation, leading to overlaps in administrative procedures as at present. Therefore, there should be consistency in the terms and determination of the numbering of floors in the decisions of the Ministry of Construction and local authorities.
If you have any questions or require any additional information, please contact Apolat Legal – An International Law Firm in Viet Nam.
This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice.
