City authorities have ordered the demolition of a large room on the 25th floor, eight rooms on the 35th floor, 26 rooms on the 41st floor, 23 rooms on the 42nd floor, and the top two floors with a total area of over 562 square meters (6,050 square feet) of the Muong Thanh Grand Da Nang.

The owner must also restore the second to fifth floors to their original purpose as a parking lot, a kindergarten, a community house, a swimming pool, and a gym. Authorities discovered that the developer had illegally built 104 apartments here.

But the columns, beams and elevator shafts in the illegal areas have been spared to maintain structural integrity.

The city authorities also stated that the dismantling will be paid for by the investor, and would be enforced in accordance with the law if the investor fails to start within 15 days of receiving the decision.

In August last year district authorities discovered other violations such as the conversion into one giant room of five rooms licensed on the 25th floor and into eight rooms of an emergency exit on the 35th floor.

The 41st and 42nd floors were licensed as technical areas measuring 531 square meters but were enlarged to over 2,129 square meters and 26 and 23 rooms were built there.

The investor thus built two extra floors to serve as the technical area.

A rooftop measuring 531 sq.m licensed but was also illegally enlarged to 2,129 sq.m.

In July the city Department of Construction handed over the case to the police after discovering that the developer might have sold unlicensed apartments to customers.

Muong Thanh is a major hospitality chain operating almost 60 hotels across the country with a capacity of over 10,000 rooms.

The group's chairman Le Thanh Than is under investigation for allegedly cheating customers by selling to them apartments in an unlicensed block in a housing project in Hanoi.

It has led to the arrests of three city officials.