Can minors have their names on certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets in Vietnam?

Can minors have their names on certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets in Vietnam?

According to Article 21 of the 2015 Civil Code, minors are as follows:

1. Minors are persons who are under eighteen years of age.

2. Civil transactions of each child under six years of age shall be established and performed by his/her legal representative.

3. Each person who is from six to under eighteen years of age must have the consent of his/her legal representative to enter in and perform civil transactions, except for civil transactions which are performed for the purpose of meeting the needs of daily life suitable for the age group.

4. Each person who is from fifteen to under eighteen years of age is entitled to enter in and perform civil transactions by himself/herself, except for civil transactions related to real estate, movables required registration and other civil transactions as prescribed by law that are subject to the consent of his/her legal representative.

In Article 19 of Decree 43/2014/ND-CP on entities ineligible for grant of certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets as follows:

1. Organizations and communities that are allocated land by the State for management in the cases specified in Article 8 of the Land Law.

2. Persons who are managing and using agricultural land belonging to the public-utility land funds of communes, wards or townships.

3. Persons who lease or sub-lease land from land users, except cases of leasing or subleasing land from investors building and dealing in infrastructure facilities in industrial parks, industrial clusters, export processing zones, hi-tech parks or economic zones.

4. Persons who receive land for use on a contractual basis in agricultural or forestry farms, agricultural or forestry enterprises, protection forest management boards or special-use forest management boards.

5. Current land users that fail to fully meet the conditions for grant of certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets.

6. Land users that fully meet the conditions for grant of certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets but have received land recovery notices or decisions of competent state agencies.

7. Organizations and commune-level People’s Committees that are allocated land by the State without land use levy for the purpose of construction of public facilities, including roads; water, petrol, oil and gas pipelines; power transmission and information communication lines; outdoor entertainment and recreation centers; cemeteries and graveyards for non-commercial purposes.

In addition, Clause 1, Article 5 of Circular 23/2014/TT-BTNMT is amended and supplemented by Clause 4, Article 6 of Circular 33/2017/TT-BTNMT on recording information on land user or owner of properties associated with the land is specified in page 1 of Certificate is as follows:

1. Specifying information on land user or owner of properties associated with the land issued with Certicate under the following regulations:

a) For domestic individuals, write “Mr” (or “Mrs”), then write their full name, year of birth, name and number of personal papers (if any), permanent address. For personal papers being people's identity cards, write "ID number:..."; in case of People's Army ID card, write "Certificate No.:..."; in case of citizen's identity card, write "citizen identification number:..."; in case there is no people's identity card or citizen identification card, write "Birth certificate number...";

b) Oversea Vietnamese people entitled to own houses in Vietnam and foreign individuals entitled to own houses under regulation, write “Mr (or “Mrs”), full name, date of birth, nationality; for personal paper, write “Passport No…issued at:…, issue year:….”; address of permanent residence of such people in Vietnam (if any);

c) If households using land, write “Household of Mr” (or “Household of Mrs”), full name, date of birth, name and number of personal paper of householder as specified under Point a of this Clause, address of permanent residence of household. If the household has no right to use the Joint land of household, write the name of representative who is other member of household sharing the land use right of household.

Where the householder or other representative of household having spouse sharing the Joint land use right of household, write full name of either spouse,

d) Where the right of land use and properties associated with the land as the Joint properties of both spouse, write full name, date of birth, name and number of personal paper, address of permanent residence of both spouse as stipulated under Point a and b of this Clause;

dd) For domestic organization, write name of organization, paper, number and signing date and signing agency of legal paper (relating to establishment or recognition of organization or certificate or permit of investment or business under regulations of law); address of main office of organization;

e) Oversea Vietnamese people or enterprises with foreign invested capital implementing investment projects in Vietnam, write name of economic organization which is the entity implementing investment projects; name of papers, number and signing date and signing agency of legal paper (relating to establishment or recognition of organization or certificate or permit of investment or business under regulations of law); address of main office of organization in Vietnam;

g) For foreign organization with diplomatic functions, write the name of organization and its address of main office.

h) For religious establishment, write its name and address;

i) For residential community (defined by such residential community and certified by communal People’s Committee) and address of Joint living activities of such residential community.

Thus, you still have right to be named on the certificate of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets because the law only restricts people under 18 years of age from performing transactions related to real estate by themselves without specifying the age to be named on the certificate in Vietnam.

Can the land allocated against the authority make certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets in Vietnam? 

Pursuant to Article 23 of Decree 43/2014/ND-CP supplemented by Clause 19, Article 2 of Decree 01/2017/ND-CP on grant of certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets to households and individuals that are allocated land ultra vires as follows:

1. Cases of allocation of land ultra vires to households and individuals specified in this Article include cases in which heads of residential quarters or commune-level People’s Committees allocated land ultra vires under the land law in different periods; and cases in which organizations that are allocated or leased land by the State for use distributed or arranged such land to their officials, workers, employees or members for use for housing and other purposes.

2. In case land allocated ultra vires has been stably used since before October 15,1993, is dispute-free and conformable with land use master plans, current land users may be granted certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets for allocated land areas under Clause 1, Article 20 of this Decree.

3. For land allocated ultra vires and stably used in the period from October 15, 1993, to before July 1, 2014, which is dispute-free and conformable with land use master plans, certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets may be granted under Clause 2, Article 20 of this Decree.

For land parcels with gardens and ponds associated with houses or other construction works, the remaining areas without houses and other construction works shall be determined as agricultural land according to the current use status and land users that wish to change their use to non-agricultural purposes shall carry out procedures for land use purpose change.

4. Land users that are granted certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets specified in Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article shall perform the financial obligations prescribed by law.

5. The State shall not grant certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets for and shall recover all land areas allocated or leased ultra vires on and after July 1, 2014.

6. When a person applies for the certificate of land use right with or without ownership of house and properties attached to land over an undisputed land parcel allocated by an incompetent authority before 01^st July 2004 in line with the plan, whether a house exists on such land parcel upon issuance of the certificate, such person shall qualify for certification and incur financial obligation(s) as per regulations.

According to this Article, in order to be granted a certificate of land use rights for the areas that are illegally allocated, people need to contact the People's Committee of the district where the land is located for guidance on handling according to regulations in Vietnam. 

Best regards!