1. The owner of a house with a total construction floor area of 250 m2 or less and two stories at most shall examine the quality of the ground planned for house construction himself/herself or hire a house designer to do this job by any of the following methods:
a/ Examining with naked eyes manually dug holes to determine the depth and quality of soil layers and the layer on which the foundation will be placed.
b/ Referring to geological survey statistics and solutions to treating the ground and foundations of neighboring works.
c/ Referring to geological statistics of the house construction site provided by functional or competent agencies.
When the above information is unavailable or collected construction survey statistics are not reliable, the house owner should hire a capable survey contractor to conduct construction survey.
2. The owner of a house with a total construction floor area of more than 250 m2 and three or more stories shall hire a contractor meeting the conditions specified in Articles 46 and 54 of Decree No. 12/2009/ND-CP to conduct construction survey, except when reliable construction survey statistics provided by functional or competent agencies are available.
3. The investor of a housing project shall hire a contractor meeting the conditions specified in Articles 46 and 54 of Decree No. 12/2009/ND-CP to conduct geological survey of the work.
Article 8.
Examination of the conditions of adjacent and neighboring works when building houses in urban centers, densely populated areas and rural residential areas
1. To assure safety for adjacent works and provide grounds for settlement of any arising disputes between a house owner and owners of these works, before dismantling old works or building a house, the house owner should proactively collaborate with owners of adjacent works in examining the conditions of these works. The house owner may himself/herself do, or hire a capable organization or individual to do this job.
2. Adjacent works shall be examined in their subsidence, tilt, crack, leakage and other abnormal signs. Examination results shall be recorded in writing, photos or films. When necessary, signs of damage on the surface of these works should be measured and marked for monitoring.