The apartment will be completed in 2 years (2011) and the investor and I will officially sign the contract in November, 2010. In fact, I was invited to sign the contract in August, 2011. The contract says that the investor will only hand over the apartment after 30 months from the signing day. I did not agree with this point so I did not sign the contract. My question now is: ‘Can I get back my deposit, the 20 % of the apartment’s total price?”.
The answer:
Firstly, according to the article 358 in Vietnamese Civil Code, deposit is defined as the acting of one side hands over the other side some amount of money or gold, silver…or ruby or other valuable jewel stones like ruby… or valuable asset (here after called asset for deposit) in a period of time to ensure the performance of the contract.
Secondly, in your deposit contract, the time of the contract signing and the time of the apartment handing over were clearly defined. In fact, the investor has violated what is said in the contract.