So far, many construction works have caused a "stir" in public opinion by their subsidence, cracks, horizontal slide, or even being collapsed. Many contractors and investors think that what are on the ground or must be checked by technical tools cannot be easily seen by the "outsiders". In many cases, only when “house subsidence” occurs, may those “irresponsible” actions be detected.

Recently, even real estate investors in Hanoi also secretly withdraw from a high-ranking condominium project which was previously highly appreciated because the building block suddenly was horizontally slid, causing the wall to be tilted and bended, which is “nearly invisible to the naked eye." Fortunately, this situation is detected early and quickly overcome by the investors, but it still causes buyers’ concern over the quality of this work.

A referendum is being held by the Ministry of Construction to consider a draft Circular which provides guideline on several articles of the Decree 114/2010/ND-CP dated on June 12, 2010 of the Government on construction works’ maintenance. The Ministry requires most of the construction buildings (residential or public works) to be observed, not only during the construction survey, but also for maintenance during the process of exploration and use. The requirements and contents of the observation must be specifically raised in the process of maintenance.

Specifically, the projects must have the design of observation right from the beginning and the approval of technical designs. The observed data need to be sufficient to monitor and evaluate the safety of the bearing structure of the work. Maintenance units must evaluate the collected data and compare with the standard parameters in the maintenance process to conclude on the safety of the building.

The draft circular also stated that during the observation, in case the monitoring data were up to maintenance expiry date, those who are responsible for maintenance must evaluate and propose timely treatment plan to ensure the safety of the works.

As a profoundly experienced expert in construction field, Pham Sy Liem said, that subsided and cracked construction works in Vietnam mainly originates from two causes, including the low quality of survey and the improper construction because of no careful observation.

"In construction industry, particularly in Vietnam, it is not advisable to only rely on workers’ conscience, but also carefully supervise the works”", Mr. Liem said.

He also added, in reality, irresponsible supervising still existed. Regarding work execution, there appeared a status of thinking "Whichever houses are still recognized", so it led to the overwhelming concern of low quality when living in the new apartment blocks.

Particularly, the resettlement houses most clearly show whether all people concerned are responsible or not. This type of houses includes both the poor-quality finishing stage, the perfunctory stage of bearing supervision and the works being extracted. "Just because they are houses which have already distributed, then people must reluctantly accept them", commented Mr. Liem.

In fact, in construction, there is no concept of resettlement house segmentation; it is formed from Vietnam market’s reality. According to Mr. Liem, we have a policy of resettlement that allows people to choose houses according to segment, including houses for the low income or those for common people. "To overcome this quality situation of resettlement houses, it is advisable to develop a low-cost housing market so that people could be equally beneficial from the policy" - Mr Liem said.