200 motorbikes left unclaimed at Hanoi apartment building

For nearly a month, the board of HH Linh Dam apartment building in Hoang Mai District has had to move hundreds of unclaimed motorbikes and bicycles from the basement to the courtyard between the buildings.

"The motorbikes cost space and human resources, but we cannot collect parking fees," said Nguyen Van Phuong, a member of the board.

Residents at the building pay a parking fee of VND80,000 (US$3.24) per month, while visitors use tickets that cost VND5,000 per entry.

However, the data system in the parking area does not record the time of vehicles entering and exiting the basement, and if it does, the information is outdated after one or two years. Therefore, the board cannot accurately identify the origin of the "forgotten" bikes in the basement.

Nguyen Tat Thang, Deputy Chairman of Hoang Liet Ward of Hoang Mai District, said the ward had coordinated with the building's management board to resolve the issue.

"The ward will contact any owners they can track down to reclaim their motorbikes, and hand over the rest of the bikes to the police for further resolution," he said.

Lawyer Vu Tien Vinh from Bao An Law Firm said when parking vehicles, the owners and the parking attendants establish an unwritten contract for property custody.

Therefore, both parties must perform and comply with legal regulations regarding property custody.

However, there is no agreement on the duration of custody, nor an agreement on how to handle situations where the owner fails to reclaim the property after the deadline.

"Thus, there is no basis to determine the duration of the contract execution and the scenarios in which the parking attendants can act according to the agreement," he said, noting that the law lacks regulations for such situations.

Hoang Mai is the most populous district in Hanoi with over 500,000 people and is facing many pressures on infrastructure as many high-rise apartments are being built. The situation of cars and motorbikes parked on sidewalks and roads around urban areas like HH Linh Dam has been ongoing for many years due to overloaded infrastructure and shortcomings in parking lot planning.