Which agency has the competence to decide to approve change of land use purpose in Vietnam? What does the application for change of land use purpose include?
In what cases is it allowed to change the land use purpose in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Article 57 of the 2013 Land Law of Vietnam, the change of land use purpose is as follows:
Change of land use purpose
1. Cases in which change of land use purpose requires permission by competent state agencies:
a/ Change of land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops, forests, aquaculture or salt production;
b/ Change of land for other annual crops to land for saltwater aquaculture, salt production or aquaculture in ponds, lakes or marshlands;
c/ Change of land for special-use forests, protection forests or production forests to land for other purposes within the type of agricultural land;
d/ Change of agricultural land to non-agricultural land;
e/ Change of non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State without land use levy to non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State with land use levy, or to leased land;
f/ Change of non-agricultural land which is not residential land to residential land;
g/ Change of land for construction of non-business facilities or land for public purposes involving commercial purpose, or non-agricultural land for business and production purposes which is not land for trading or services to land for trading or services; change of land for trading or services or land for construction of non-commercial facilities to land for non-agricultural production establishments.
2. When changing the land use purpose under Clause 1 of this Article, land users shall fulfill financial obligations as prescribed by law. The land use regime and the rights and obligations of land users are those applicable to the type of the land used for the new purpose.
According to the above regulations, cases in which change of land use purpose requires permission by competent state agencies:
- Change of land for rice cultivation to land for perennial crops, forests, aquaculture or salt production;
- Change of land for other annual crops to land for saltwater aquaculture, salt production or aquaculture in ponds, lakes or marshlands;
- Change of land for special-use forests, protection forests or production forests to land for other purposes within the type of agricultural land;
- Change of agricultural land to non-agricultural land;
- Change of non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State without land use levy to non-agricultural land which is allocated by the State with land use levy, or to leased land;
- Change of non-agricultural land which is not residential land to residential land;
- Change of land for construction of non-business facilities or land for public purposes involving commercial purpose, or non-agricultural land for business and production purposes which is not land for trading or services to land for trading or services; change of land for trading or services or land for construction of non-commercial facilities to land for non-agricultural production establishments.
Which agency has the competence to decide to approve change of land use purpose in Vietnam? What does the application for change of land use purpose include?
What does the application for change of land use purpose include?
According to Article 6 of Circular No. 30/2014/TT-BTNMT, the applications for change of land use purpose is as follows:
- The applicant shall submit a set of application if land repurposing is subject to approval by a competent state authority, including:
+ A completed application form for repurposing of land provided in the specimen No. 1 attached hereto;
+ Either of the certificate of land use rights, certificate of house ownership and land use rights or the certificate of land use rights, house ownership and other property pertaining to land.
- An application for repurposing of land submitted to the competent People’s Committee shall consist of:
+ The documents specified as above;
+ An on-site inspection record;
+ A copy of the notes of investment project if the project is not subject to approval by a competent authority or exempted from the certificate of investment; copy of the technical-economic report made by an organization using land if the plan for construction project is not required; the written assessment of demand for land use; or assessment of requirements for repurposing of land stipulated in Clause 3 Article 58 of the 2013 Land Law of Vietnam and Article 14 of the Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP that has been made when granting the certificate of investment, carrying out assessment of the investment project or considering approving of the project if it is required to be submitted to the competent state authority for approval or the project must obtain the certificate of investment;
+ A written assessment of demand for land use or assessment of requirements for repurposing of land specified in Clause 3 Article 58 of the 2013 Land Law of Vietnam and Article 14 of the Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP if the project is not subject to approval by a competent authority; the project is exempted from the certificate of investment and the plan for construction project is not required.
If a household or an individual applies for land repurposing from agricultural purposes to commercial purposes with the area of 0.5 ha or over, the applicant shall send an additional written approval made by the People’s Committee of province according to provisions of Point a Clause 2 Article 59 of the Land Law;
+ The extracted cadastral map or extracted cadastral survey of the piece of land;
+ A written request and a draft of the decision on repurposing of land provided in the specimen No. 5 attached hereto.
Thus, the land user must prepare all the documents mentioned above to be considered for change of land use purpose when meeting other attached conditions of the law.
Which agency has the competence to decide to approve change of land use purpose in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Article 59 of the 2013 Land Law of Vietnam, the competence to approve change of land use purpose is as follows:
Competence to allocate, lease land and approve change of land use purpose
1. Provincial-level People’s Committees may decide on the allocation or lease of land, and permit change of land use purpose in the following cases:
a/ Allocation or lease of land to, and permission for change of land use purpose for, organizations;
b/ Allocation of land to religious institutions;
c/ Allocation of land to overseas Vietnamese or foreign-invested enterprises under Clause 3, Article 55 of this Law;
d/ Lease of land to overseas Vietnamese or foreign-invested enterprises under Points e and f, Clause 3, Article 56 of this Law;
2. District-level People’s Committees may decide on the allocation or lease of land, and permit change of land use purpose in the following cases:
a/ Allocation or lease of land to, and permission of change of land use purpose for, households and individuals. If these subjects wish to lease or use agricultural land with an area of 0.5 ha or more for trading and service purposes, written approval from the provincial-level People’s Committee is required before the district-level People’s Committee makes decision;
b/ Allocation of land to communities.
3. Commune-level People’s Committees may lease land from the agricultural land fund for public purposes in their communes, wards or townships.
4. Agencies having the competence to decide on land allocation or lease and permit change of land use purpose as prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article may not delegate their competence.
Thus, the following agencies are competent to approve change of land use purpose, including:
- Provincial-level People's Committees approve change of use purposes for organizations;
- District-level People's Committees approve the change of land use purposes for households and individuals.
LawNet
