550 houses built illegally in HCMC in one month Tuoitrenews This file photo shows a house being built illegally in Vinh Loc A Commune, Binh Chanh District, HCMC. Tuoi Tre As a serious consequence of poor management over construction, as many as 550 houses have been built illegally in two districts in Ho Chi Minh City within a one month time period. This incredible but true situation occurred in Binh Chanh and Go Vap districts, with more than 390 of these houses built in the former, and the rest in the latter, in May. This is likely the most prominent example of a reality in which many people randomly build houses on farming land without a construction license, while local authorities have failed to take effective measures to prevent them from doing so. These illegal houses have been found during recent inspections by the city Construction Department in four communes of Binh Chanh District and Ward 15 of Go Vap District. All of these houses were built during the period when the authority to inspect construction activities was transferred from district governments to the department, inspectors said. Vu Van Nha, the owner of one such house in Doi hamlet, Go Vap, said his family has lived in the hamlet for 15 years and has yet to have a stable shelter, since the area has been earmarked for a project. Meanwhile his family is large and many of his children have no place to live, Nha said, adding that, “I ran the risks to build a house without a permit for my children. I ventured to do it since we cannot afford to rent a house to live.” Two nights for a house Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Long, chief of police of Ward 15, Go Vap, said, “Builders here can complete a house in only two nights, one of which is for building the foundation, and the other its walls and other structures.” Police have caught many people building houses overnight in 15 areas in the ward, Long said. A similar situation has been seen in Binh Chanh District, where many of the owners of illegal houses in Vinh Loc A Commune disguised the construction by planting luffa around their work. Therefore, in many cases when authorities detected the illegal houses, they were already completed. Government actions Thieu Van Xe, chairman of Binh Chanh’s Vinh Loc B Commune People’s Committee, said he has ordered concerned agencies to handle and punish those who built houses without a license. “We have currently put the situation under control,” he added. A leader from Binh Chanh District’s People’s Committee said, “So many houses have been built at the same time, so authorities in wards and communes have failed to prevent them effectively although they have mobilized all possible forces.”   An official from Go Vap District said the authorities don’t have enough workers to inspect illegal construction sites. Moreover, most of these houses were built at night and were completed quickly. Phan Duc Nhan, deputy director of the Construction Department, said the authorities in Go Vap and Binh Chanh are forcing the owners of illegal houses to dismantle them if they have been built on agricultural land. As for houses illegally built on non-agricultural land, their owners must make steps to apply for a license to build such houses, according to the department’s inspectorate.