23/07/2016
The English version of the story
Problem with the building located on
07 Nguyễn Công Trứ, Phú Hội, TP Huế, Vietnam
Background
On the 18th July 2014, the foreign company CÔNG TY TRÀCH NHIỆM HỮU HẠN DU LỊCH MARREL&BRO, registered under the number 311023000052, was created in Huế based on a contract signed on the 14th July 2014, between GAULTHIER MARREL and NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY HẰNG ; living on 124 Nguyên Phúc Nguyên, phường Hương Long, TP Huế ; owner of the building located 07 Nguyễn Công Trứ Street, phường Phú Hôi, Huế ; and director of the company DOANH NGIỆP TƯ NHÂN KHÁCH SẠN Ơ LẠI, registered under the number 3301050560.
At this time, Hằng showed us all the licences to run a hotel registered under her company, and therefore the hotel was supposed to follow the Vietnamese regulation. This fact was stipulated it the contract and is the responsibility of Hằng.
Problem related to the PCCC
The building has been controlled by Anh Phat, from the PCCC department, on the 23rd November 2015 to check that the building respects the Vietnamese norms (according to the standard of 2009). The report of this control shows that the building doesn’t follow the Vietnamese regulation. Indeed there is no safety exist, the fire prevention was out of date and this problem has been existing since January 2014. Therefore the PCCC clearly stipulated that the building located on 07 Nguyễn Công Trứ Street is not safe to welcome any guest and shouldn’t have been opened, ever.
Nevertheless, the rental contract I signed with Hằng stipulates that she had a PCCC licence and all the needed licence to run the hotel, and provided me with such report. So this leaves the question of how is it possible that a building approved by the PCCC in March 2014 is not approved anymore in 2016 while the Law hasn’t changed since 2009 for such a building. This looks like some paper and some report have probably been bought from the PCCC.
Therefore, the very open question is how the PCCC could have let such a building getting open in the first place and how could they issued the proper paper to insure the safety of the building. It seems only one word can define this WRONG DOING.
Action of the official to solve the situation
The PCCC after revealing this problem came to meet us many times and tried to make us sign some paper minimizing the problem of the building in order to reduce their responsibility.
They keep stating to me as I was a foreigner that this was the way to solve this problem and every time I asked them to have copy of the paper I should sign to have it translated into English and sent to my lawyer, they always back up and refuse to do anything to solve the situation.
In fact I suspect they just wanted this problem to stay small so nobody would know that some hotels in Hué don’t respect the Vietnamese regulation to ensure the safety of their guest.
Indeed after being informed of the safety exit problem, I visited a few hotels in Hué and it appears that many hotels in this city are not safe for the tourists. This is also may be explained by WRONG DOING.
Also, the PCCC threaten to fine me more than 100 million vnd for the missing safety exist and fire prevention system and other problem if all the problems were stated in the report. So they offered me to give me a very small fine if I agree with them to sign a report which only states some minor problems and if I agree to forget the big issues. This is clearly WRONG DOING in order to get money from me without really solving the situation.
I refuse to play this game and I agree with them for the big fine due to the big problems. When I told them I was ready to sign such a report and when I told them I was ready to receive the fine, the PCCC finally change their mind.
Then they threaten me to close the hotel as it was not safe for the tourists. I still don’t know what they are doing as until now the hotel is still officially open and still welcomes guests.
I offer them a solution to let me 6 months to close my hotel properly has I am not a stupid man and I don’t want to play with the safety of the customers. They never wanted to sign any paper about such agreement and just tried to forget the problem so they simply avoid doing their job.
On the other hand, the owner, NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY HẰNG, doesn’t care about the safety of her building and doesn’t want to respect her contract and therefore doesn’t take any responsibility about her building. She let me 2 choices, running a business and endanger the customers or close the door and stop welcoming guest. Therefore, on the 1st July 2016, as a respectful business man caring about the safety of my customers, I closed the hotel as I told the PCCC it should be. Also we witnessed some meetings between Anh Chiến from the PCCC office and Hằng in order to find a way to minimize the situation.
Now the PCCC refused one more time to take any responsibility, refused to meet me and prefer to let the situation be. They refuse to do its work and to recognize that I had to close the building according to the safety reasons they stated to me.
Gaulthier MARREL
Contact number of the person mentioned in the previous report
Gaulthier Marrel: 096 503 6969
Nguyễn Thị Thúy Hàng: 098 310 4307
Anh Phat from the PCCC office: 091 431 3339
Anh Chiến from the PCCC office: 090 651 1559
