People live in old houses in the capital city are facing troubles and threatened by times.

House 119's ceiling fell down

In November 2012, several houses in Hang Bac Street were rebuilt. However, the permission to dig a foundation of over three metres badly affected the next-door neighbour, house no119 and on January 17 this year, six square metres of its ceiling fell down angering the owner.

"After a century, my house is so old that I wouldn't even know what to repair if I were allowed to," house owner Do Thi Hien said. In reality, they had to use plastic sheets to support the crumbling walls and ceilings. The 100 square metres house is currently home for over 20 people.

"Our house was categorised as an old house in need of preservation in 1990. Since then we have received lots of research teams. A French expert suggested buying the house so it could be rebuilt but I didn't agree because our family has lived here for five generations." Hien said. She further said her family had never been given supporting payments.

Feedback from Hoan Kiem District People's Committee on November 26 said the case between house 119 and 121-123 was civil problem. "The owner of the houses at 121-123 bought insurance to pay compensation for the neighbouring houses if they were damaged during the construction process," the report said.

Pham Tuan Long, Deputy Head of Hanoi 's Old House Management Board said they still lacked official regulations on the preservation and expansion of houses in the Old Quarter.

The survey conducted by the Ministry of Construction in 1998 showed that there were about 1,081 ancient houses. However, the recent survey indicated that the figure was only 550 houses. Long said the board will set up regulations for preservation for the houses in 2013.

According to Nguoiduatin, in the city's central, an old apartment block in Hang Bai Street near Hoan Kiem Lake has been standing for decades. Most of the apartments are only 10 square metres with only one or two windows.

A resident in the block said she was given an apartment in 1954, but the rooms had been continuously subdivided, it lacked natural light and the rain came in. Many families resorted to cooking in the hallways to save space. Despite that, the residents are unable to do anything because the ward bans them from making drastic changes to the block.

Hanoi has about 982 four to five-story apartment blocks aged over 40 years old. 11 apartment blocks are in dangerous state that entirely to be rebuilt. However, the city was only able to rebuild 1% of the downgraded apartment blocks.