When apartment elevators are “distorted” in use!

Elevators is distrained

Hundreds of residents of apartments (33 Nguyen Thai Son, Ward 3, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City) had to wait in line for elevators in rush hour, even walking to the 11th floor. Many young children and pregnant women are in the same situation. The condominium management explained to residents that the elevator was undergoing maintenance. But how maintenance lasts almost 2 months is something that residents are starting to wonder.

Only then did they learn the fact that the elevator was not maintained but had been… distrained. The elevator was cut off, removing the control unit, and leaving only the structure.

As it turned out, the contractor side is missing 100 million VND of elevator installation units. Because the contractor soaked this debt for too long, the elevator supplier had to use trick: remove the elevator, distrain. However, while the contractor considers it a “minor issue” building residents suffer when their elevators become collateral!

“Temporarily use” freight elevator to carry people

That is the situation that the people of building B, Intracom Vinh Ngoc apartment building – Hanoi have to “adapt” when for more than 3 weeks now, up to 2/5 of the building’s elevators have been damaged and have not been repaired.

With more than 500 apartments, at peak hours, even though the remaining 3 elevators have to run at full capacity, there is still a traffic jam. The management board of the building has come up with “a temporary solution while waiting for the elevator to be repaired, only open during rush hours…” according to their explanation but did not fully anticipate the behavior of the people. This move poses many risks to building occupants.

2/5 elevators are “down” waiting for equipment at Intracom Vinh Ngoc Apartment

Using the elevator “forces” residents to pay service fees

Many people living in the 6th Element luxury apartment building located in Xuan La ward (Tay Ho district, Hanoi) still remember the story that happened in 2021 when the suddenly appeared in the building’s freight elevator a sign “elevator for apartment that owe service fee”. This incident pushed the anger of the people to the climax.

Accordingly, out of 1,176 apartments that have been moved in, more than 500 apartments “debt” service fees to different levels due to disagreement on contribution levels with investors. The building management board has given the above punishment to warn and remind households to pay the fee (!?).

Posting a sign to use a freight elevator to force apartments that owe service fees has offended residents. In fact, there is no law that allows the Management Board to have the right to stipulate that anyone who owes fees can only take one elevator, this is a warning, intimidation, and contempt for people. Even this behavior seriously violates safety regulations.

Who owns the apartment elevator?

According to Point b, Clause 2, Article 100 of the Law on Housing 2014 stipulates:

The common ownership part of the apartment building includes: “The space and system of load-bearing structures, technical equipment shared in the apartment building, including frames, columns, load-bearing walls, house walls, partition walls, dividing apartments, floors, roofs, terraces, corridors, stairs, elevators, emergency exits, litter cages, technical boxes, power supply systems, water supply, gas supply, communication systems communication, radio, television, drainage, septic tanks, lightning, fire fighting and other parts not under the private ownership of the apartment owner…” Thus, according to the law, the elevator belongs to the part of the ownership.

Clause 1, Article 7 of Circular No. 02/2016/TT-BXD on Regulations on management and use of apartment buildings, section Management of shared ownership and common use of multi-owner apartment buildings also clearly states:

“The area and equipment systems jointly owned by the owners of the apartment building are determined according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 100 of the Law on Housing and must be clearly stated in the purchase and sale contract. The apartment purchase and lease purchase contract must be enclosed with a list of shares under common ownership in accordance with the Law on Housing; Shared parts of the apartment building must be used for the right purposes and with the approved design functions.

Thus, for commercial apartments and social houses, the ownership of apartment elevators is clearly established and specified in legal documents, it is the property of apartment owners. These items of common use are managed and operated by the Board of Directors directly or by hiring a Management Board.

For mixed-use apartments, Clause 5, Article 108 of the Law on Housing 2014 stipulates that in case the apartment building has mixed use purposes for living and business, it is possible to separate different functional areas in the same building. The building includes functional areas for apartments, functional areas for business and services, and each of these functional areas has a common ownership part which is separate from the common ownership of the whole building, managed and operated independently. The investor and the purchaser or lease-purchaser of an apartment or other area in the apartment building shall agree in the purchase and sale contract, the division of the maintenance cost of the common area into several parts for management and use according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 109 of this Law.

According to the provisions of the law and related implementing documents, the elevator is a common ownership part of the apartment building, people have the right to use it in their own way through the management board, the transportation management board. operating the building…, ensuring safety regulations.

When the elevator fails, people have to climb over the rooftop to use the elevator in the next building

Overcoming the knowledge gap on management and use of apartment elevators

Elevator Magazine once mentioned through a series of investigative reports about the elevator “out of date” in the resettlement area of ​​Den Lu, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi. With building G, the residence of 500 people, only two-quarters of the elevators operate intermittently, serving people. The special thing is that the two elevators work but there is no inspection.

Because this is a mixed-use building, including both residential and commercial areas, the Urban Area Exploitation and Service Management Enterprise (belonging to Hanoi Housing Development and Management Company Limited) is assigned to manage, operate.

For 4 years now, due to “lack of fund” from the Hanoi People’s Committee, this unit was forced to break the law when people still use untested elevators to commute daily.

Obviously, if you put the “sentiment” aside, this action shows that the Urban Area Exploitation and Service Management Enterprise has relaxed its responsibilities in managing and operating the error elevator”. Bigger than that, has the Hanoi People’s Committee “forgot” about the amount of money that needs to be poured into the repair items of these dilapidated resettlement areas? (Readers read the article APARTMENT ELEVATOR SAFETY: NOT ANYONE’S OWN WORRY – Part 1: Nervous on the way home)

Besides, it is possible that this unit’s sense of importance or capacity for safe operation of the elevator needs to be questioned.

Or back to Intracom Vinh Ngoc apartment building, the Chief Engineer of Intracom Building Operation Management Board (hired by the Board of Directors) shared that they only received simple training in operation and rescue, but no skills and In-depth knowledge of elevator safety.

At Linh Dam social housing apartment, many elevators have not been inspected for a long time. The management board said that people self-manage and handle issues related to common ownership, including elevators. And “if regular maintenance is done, it’s safe, there’s no need to check anymore” according to a representative shared. It shows that normally people only know about the basic elevator at the level: press the button on the operating panel to get up and down!

This situation is very common when knowledge about management, operation or use of elevators in apartment buildings is ironically “Amateur” by experts! This has many potential risks, most of which are for the people living there.

In order to improve people’s safety and effectively use the elevator, Technical Support and Consulting Center of the Vietnam Elevator Association is ready to accompany organizations and individuals in consulting and organizing training to improve knowledge and skills in management, operation, use and rescue of this special vertical transport vehicle. This shows the responsibility to the community to really bring the elevator to absolute safety for users./.