JJF [2016] No. 2

To the Committees of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of all districts, Committees of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Dongcheng and Xicheng Districts (Real Estate Bureaus), the Construction Bureau of the Economic and Technological Development Zone (Real Estate Bureau), all real estate development enterprises and all other relevant units:

In order to implement the requirements of the Work Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China and Regulations on Beijing Municipal Construction Engineering Quality, strengthen the construction quality and safety management of real estate development projects, and ensure the life and property safety of the people, in accordance with the relevant laws, regulations, rules and provisions of Beijing's normative documents, and in light of the concrete conditions in Beijing, this Notice on further strengthening the construction quality and safety management of real estate development enterprises (hereinafter referred to as 'development enterprises') is as follows:

I. Real estate projects developed and constructed by development enterprises should comply with the relevant laws, regulations and quality and safety standards of construction projects, and the technical specifications of engineering investigation, design and construction, as well as contracts. Development enterprises should be responsible for the quality of the real estate projects they develop, and should also be responsible for the coordination and management of construction quality and safety at all stages. Development enterprises should also supervise and urge all units participating in the construction to bear the responsibilities of quality and safety management in accordance with the contract, and handle all quality defects and accidents during the construction process and warranty period.

II. Development enterprises should establish a quality and safety management system, develop a quality and safety assurance system, establish project management agencies and clarify project leaders. Development enterprises should also be equipped with personnel for on-site management in accordance with each project's scale and technical difficulties, and fulfill their quality and safety responsibilities. During project construction, development enterprises should strengthen the supervision and inspection of projects' on-site construction quality and safety management, and urge construction units and supervision units to fulfill their quality and safety management responsibilities so as to ensure the quality and safety of projects.

Development enterprises should implement construction procedures according to the law, and handle the procedures of project quality, safety supervision and construction permission in accordance with national relevant provisions before starting a project. Development enterprises should conscientiously carry out project bidding, contract signing, duration confirmation, material procurement, commissioning, inspection, testing, delivery and warranty of projects. Development enterprises should not ask or imply that the design units or construction units violate construction standards and reduce construction quality.

The city encourages development enterprises to commission their project management units to implement professional management and services for each entire construction project.

III. In accordance with the requirements of Measures for the Implementation of the Lifetime Responsibility System of Beijing's Municipal Construction Quality (BMCC Law [2015] No. 1), the legal representatives of development enterprises should sign a power of attorney to clarify the project leaders. The project leaders should sign a lifetime commitment to the responsibility for construction quality. The legal representatives and project leaders should directly bear the responsibility for construction quality within the service life of the project's design.

The project leaders of development enterprises are responsible for the organization and coordination of construction quality and safety management at all stages. They should urge the relevant units to fulfill their quality and safety responsibilities.

Personnel undertaking the on-site construction quality management of development enterprises should have organization and management capabilities adaptive to engineering construction, and they should be workers on service in development enterprises.

IV. Development enterprises should select investigation and design units with qualifications according to the project's scale, characteristics and technical requirements, and should sign a written contract in accordance with the law. The contract should clarify the quality requirements and liabilities for breach of contract.

Development enterprises should submit the construction drawing design documents to the urban and rural planning administrative departments for examination in accordance with national and Beijing municipal provisions. The qualified construction drawing design documents can be considered as the basis for the construction, supervision, inspection, quality monitoring and management of the project.

V. Development enterprises should formulate a potential accident investigation & treatment system and potential accident investigation & treatment plan in accordance with the relevant requirements. Development enterprises should take technical and management measures, and promptly detect and eliminate hidden dangers during operation and on-site construction.

Development enterprises should urge design units to consider the need for safe operation and protection, specify the key parts and sections involved in construction safety in the design documents, and provide guidance for the prevention of production safety accidents. As for construction projects which use new structures, new materials, new processes or special structures, development enterprises should urge the design units to propose measures and suggestions in order to ensure the safety of the construction workers and prevent production safety accidents.

VI. Development enterprises should implement the simultaneous construction, delivery and use of municipal infrastructure, service facilities and residential buildings in residential areas in accordance with the requirements of Interim Measures for Simultaneous Delivery and Use of Newly-built Buildings in Commercial Residential Districts, Municipal Public Infrastructure and Public Service Facilities in Beijing (JJF [2007] No. 99). Development enterprises should also prepare a building program for residential areas in good time as an important content of the project manual for the records. Before carrying out construction bidding, development enterprises should submit their projects to the Committees of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the districts for the records, and projects should be announced to the public by the Municipal Committee of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Municipal and district bidding management departments should review whether the scope of construction bidding and the division of tenders meet the requirements of the construction plan when the construction bidding documents are submitted for the records; if development enterprises fail to bid for residential and municipal public infrastructure and public service facilities in line with the construction plan, the municipal and district bidding management departments should not handle the document filing procedures for the project.

For the same project, the divisions of staged construction scale and construction tenders should be consistent. The contract tenders of temporary-level and fourth-level development enterprises should not exceed 200,000m2, and those of second-level and third-level development enterprises should not exceed 250,000m2.

VII. Development enterprises should give the contract of the project to contractors with corresponding qualifications that legally accord with the requirements of the Notice on Further Standardizing the Construction Contract Activities of Beijing’s Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects (JJF [2011] No. 130). It is forbidden to give the contract of a project to more than two construction units.

Ready-mixed concrete should be purchased by the construction unit, and the development enterprises should not specify the supply units for ready-mixed concrete supply units or purchase ready-mixed concrete directly. Development enterprises should also ensure that construction units cannot cooperate with ready-mixed concrete production enterprises that are not in the list of qualified enterprises issued by the Committee of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

VIII. Development enterprises should submit the construction contract, survey contract, design contract and supervision contract to the relevant administrative departments for the records in accordance with regulations and the requirements of the Measures for Beijing Municipal Housing Construction and Infrastructure Construction Contracts (JJF [2015] No. 20). If there are major changes in the scale standard, structure or function of construction projects which should be approved by the relevant administrative departments in accordance with the law, the building and construction units should submit the relevant contracts again.

The relevant contract of the construction project should be regarded as the basis for the engineering settlement project, and the parties should not sign any other agreement which departs from the substantive contents of the contract.

IX. Development enterprises should calculate the construction period according to the fixed time limit and specify it in the tender documents in accordance with the requirements of the Notice on the Implementation of 2009 Beijing Construction Fixed Period and Issues of 2009 Beijing Fixed Period of Housing Maintenance Projects (JJF [2010] No. 255). When the construction period required in the tender document is shorter than the fixed period, development enterprises should prepare a construction plan to ensure the project's quality and safety based on the construction period, and compress the construction period and increase the cost according to this plan. When development enterprises compress the fixed construction period by more than 10%, they should organize experts with relevant majors to carry out a feasibility demonstration of the construction plan, and bear the responsibility for construction quality and safety. Fees increased due to the compression of the construction period should be borne by the development enterprises and be paid along with the progress payment.

The number of days for the construction period compressed by development enterprises should not exceed 30% of the fixed period. If so, it should be considered as an arbitrary compression of the reasonable construction period. The case should be handled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects.

X. Development enterprises should reasonably determine the construction cost and should not deliberately depress the highest bid limit or base price, in accordance with the requirements of the Beijing Construction Project Cost Management (JJF [2011] No. 206). Development enterprises should guarantee construction funds that match the construction needs and clarify the payment standards, payment methods, time limit, deduction of construction pre-payment and progress payment in the construction contract based on national and municipal provisions. Development enterprises should also pay in full and on time in accordance with the contract.

XI. Development enterprises should list the fees for the expense of safe and civilized construction measures and other special funds in the construction budget separately to ensure construction safety in accordance with the requirements of the Notice on Issuing the Provisions of Construction Safety Protection, Civilized Construction Expense and Use Management (JB [2007] No. 89) and specify them in the tender documents and contracts. Development enterprises should pay special funds in full and on time according to the contract to ensure construction safety and supervise the construction units’ use of special funds. For accidents caused due to unpaid expenses for safe and civilized construction measures, the development enterprises will bear the corresponding responsibilities.

XII Development enterprises should carry out the provisions of the Management Measures on the Safety and Quality Assessment of Beijing Housing Building and Municipal Infrastructure Projects (provisional) (JJF [2013] No. 2) and implement the safety and quality assessment of construction projects. Development enterprises should also urge the units participating in the construction to fulfill the safety and quality evaluation and promptly report the evaluation results in accordance with the requirements.

XIII. Development enterprises should strictly implement the requirements of the Notice on the Implementation of the Supervision of the Production Quality of Ready-mixed Concrete in Affordable Housing Projects (trial) (JJF [2014] No. 20). For affordable housing construction projects, development enterprises should commission the supervision unit to supervise the production quality of ready-mixed concrete at the plant. Development enterprises should sign a separate written commission contract, and the plant supervision contract should be submitted to the municipal (district) bidding management department for the records.

XIV. Development enterprises should fulfill the management of the suspension and resumption of construction projects during holidays in accordance with the requirements of the Notice on the Implementation of Self-inspection Report System Before Resumption of On-site Construction, and Self-inspection Report System Before Construction During Holidays (JJF [2015] No. 3). Development enterprises should strictly implement the report system before suspending the construction project, the self-inspection report system before resuming the construction project, and the self-inspection report system before construction during holidays.

Development enterprises should organize the investigation units, design units, general contracting units and supervision units to carry out self-inspection of on-site safety production management responsibilities before resuming construction. If any safety hazards or management defects are detected, development enterprises should make corrections and self-rectify in good time to be qualified. Construction can only be resumed when the construction site meets the safety production conditions required for the resumption of construction.

XV. Development enterprises should organize the investigation, design, construction, supervision units to obtain the project's completion and quality acceptance, and formulate records of the project's quality acceptance after the construction units finish the quality self-inspection and the supervision units finish the project's completion and quality acceptance, in accordance with the requirements of the Management Measures for Completion and Acceptance of Beijing Housing Buildings and Municipal Infrastructure Projects (JJF [2015] No. 2).

After the units carry out the project's completion and quality acceptance and meet the other conditions stipulated by the laws and regulations, development enterprises should organize the investigation, design, construction, supervision units to obtain the completion and acceptance of the projects; for residential projects, development enterprises should organize the supervision units to accept individually before the completion and acceptance of the project. Buyers and property companies are encouraged to participate in the completion and acceptance. During the completion and acceptance of a project, the completion and acceptance records should be developed and signed by the leaders of the investigation, design, construction, supervision units as certified documents for qualified completion and acceptance.

XVI. When the project is completed and accepted as qualified, and the fire service facilities, civil air defense equipment, environmental sanitation facilities and lightning protection devices are accepted as qualified in accordance with the provisions, the construction project can be delivered for use. If real estate development projects are not completed or accepted as qualified, the problems caused when they were delivered for use or put into trial operation should be solved, and the responsibilities should be borne by the development enterprises.

XVII. Development enterprises should fulfill their quality warranty obligation to the owners within the quality warranty scope and warranty period. The quality warranty period of the project should be calculated from the date of delivery.

When delivering housing construction projects, development enterprises should provide a housing construction quality qualification and operating manual to the owner of the building, and bear the warranty responsibility in accordance with the agreement of the warranty. For quality complaints of housing projects within the warranty, development enterprises should identify the responsibility and organize relevant responsible parties to solve quality problems. As to problems the responsibility for which temporarily cannot be identified, the development enterprises should solve them and the relevant costs should be borne by the responsible party after the causes of the quality problems have been identified.

XVIII. According to the requirements of the Notice on the Optimization of Housing and Land Supply Structure to Promote the Healthy and Balanced Development of the Real Estate Market in 2015 (GTZF [2015] No. 37) issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, for development enterprises with the following conditions, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development should limit their bid qualifications for transferring lands in a certain period of time through the Ministry of Land and Resources:

(I) Enterprises which have incurred one or more quality safety accidents at a large or larger level within one year, or three or more quality safety accidents at a general level within one year, and bear the responsibilities;

(II) Enterprises which cause project quality and safety problems, cause mass incidents and have adverse social impacts;

(III) Enterprises which are subject to administrative penalties over three times due to illegal construction or such illegal acts as delivery and use without qualified acceptance within one year;

(IV) Enterprises which cause mass incidents and have adverse social impacts due to project funds being in arrears;

(V) Enterprises which have 24 or more points in accordance with the Score Standard for Illegal Acts of Beijing Real Estate Development Enterprises;

(VI) Enterprises which cause mass incidents and have adverse social impacts due to failing to fulfill the related contracts and housing sales contracts of construction projects;

(VII) Enterprises which have committed other serious illegal acts in the real estate development and trading sections.

XIX. The real estate development departments of Municipal and District Committees of Housing and Urban-Rural Development should strengthen the supervision and management of development enterprises’ quality and safety management behavior and inspection of real estate development projects by combining with the dynamic management of development enterprise qualification and the manual filing of the real estate development projects. They should make the accountability system strict and investigate development departments which have safety problems with serious impacts on project quality according to the laws and regulations, and expose them to the community through the media.

Committees of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in all districts should fulfill the supervision responsibilities of real estate development and construction, and strengthen the construction quality and safety management of real estate enterprises.

XX. This Notice will take effect as of May 1st, 2016.

Beijing Municipal Committee of Housing and Urban-Rural Development

March 7th, 2016