Is the lease agreement in Vietnam required to be made in writing and notarized or authenticated?
What is a lease agreement in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Article 472 of the 2015 Civil Code of Vietnam, the rental contract is recorded as follows:
Contract for lease of property means an agreement between parties whereby a lessor delivers property to a lessee for use during a fixed term and the lessee is required to pay rent.
Lease contracts of houses or lease contracts of houses for other purposes shall comply with this Code, the Law on Housing and relevant laws.
Thus, a lease agreement is a form of a contract for lease of property, so a lease agreement means an agreement between parties whereby a lessor delivers property to a lessee for use during a fixed term and the lessee is required to pay rent.
Is the lease agreement in Vietnam required to be made in writing and notarized or authenticated?
Is a lease agreement required to be made in writing?
According to Article 119 of the 2015 Civil Code of Vietnam, the forms of civil transactions are as follows:
- A civil transaction shall be expressed verbally, in writing, or through specific acts.
Civil transactions by way of electronic means in form of data messages prescribed in law on electronic transactions shall be deemed to be written civil transactions.
- In cases where it is provided for by law that a civil transaction must be expressed in writing, notarized, authenticated, registered or permitted, such provisions must be complied with.
According to Article 121 of the 2014 Law on Housing in Vietnam on housing agreement as follows:
A housing agreement shall be concluded by contracting parties and made in writing, including:
- Full names of individuals, names of organizations and addresses of contracting parties;
- Description of characteristics of the house and the piece of land attached to that house. Regarding agreements on apartment sale or lease purchase, contracting parties must state the common areas or common-using areas; private areas; floor area; purposes of the common areas or common-using areas in the apartment building according to approved design;
- The value of contributed capital, the transaction price of housing if there is a term on pricing in the agreement; regarding transactions in housing sale, lease, or lease purchase which is regulated pricing by the State, contracting parties shall comply with that regulations;
- Deadline for and method of payment regarding transactions in housing sale, lease, lease purchase or transfer of agreements on housing sale;
- Deadline for housing transfer; housing warranty duration regarding transactions in buying or renting and buying new house; terms of agreements on housing lease, lease purchase, mortgage, lending, permission for stay, authorization of housing management; deadline for capital contribution;
- Rights and obligations of contracting parties;
- Commitments of contracting parties;
- Other agreements;
- Effective date of the agreement;
- Date of agreement;
- Signatures and full names of contracting parties, or stamps (if any) and positions of the signatories regarding organizations.
Thus, the lease agreement must be made in writing, including the contents as prescribed by law.
Does the lease agreement have to be notarized or authenticated?
Pursuant to Article 122 of the 2014 Law on Housing in Vietnam on notarization and authentication of agreements and effective date of housing agreements as follows:
- Regarding agreements on housing sale, giving, exchange, capital contribution, mortgage, or transfer of agreement on commercial housing sale, it is required to notarize or authenticate the agreement, except for cases prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article.
Regarding any agreement prescribed in this Clause, the effective date of the agreement shall be the date on which the agreement is notarized or authenticated.
- Regarding transactions in giving houses of gratitude; sale or lease purchase of state-owned housing; sale or lease purchase of social housing, housing serving the relocation; contributed housing which one entity of contracting parties is an organization; housing lease, lending, permission for stay, or authorization of housing management, it is not required to notarize or authenticate the agreement, unless contracting parties wish to notarize or authenticate the agreement.
Regarding any agreement prescribed in this Clause, the effective date of the agreement shall be agreed by contracting parties; if the contracting parties do not agree, the effective date of agreement shall be the date on which the agreement is signed.
In addition, Clause 3, Article 167 of the 2013 Land Law of Vietnam stipulates the case of notarization and authentication of contracts and documents related to land use rights as follows:
The right to exchange, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, donate, mortgage land use rights and contribute land use rights as capital
…
3. The notarization and certification of contracts and documents on the exercise of the rights of land users shall be conducted as follows:
a/ Contracts on transfer, donation, mortgage or contribution of land use rights as capital or the rights to use land and land-attached assets must be notarized or certified, except the case of real estate business prescribed at Point b of this Clause;
b/ Contracts on lease or sublease of land use rights or the rights to use land and land-attached assets, a contract on exchange of agricultural land use rights, a contract on transfer of land use rights or the rights to use land and land-attached assets in which one party or all parties involved in the transaction is/are a real estate business organization or organizations must be notarized or certified at the request of the parties;
c/ The documents on inheritance of land use rights or the rights to use land and land-attached assets must be notarized or certified under the civil law;
d/ The notarization shall be conducted at notarization-practicing organizations and the certification shall be conducted at commune-level People’s Committees.
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Thus, the lease agreement is not required to be notarized or authenticated, unless the parties themselves agree to notarize or authenticate.
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