Vietnam: Notarizing testament in case the testator is without awareness shall be fined severely

Specifically, according to Clause 6 Article 1 of Decree No. 67/2015/ND-CP of Vietnam’s Government amending Clause 2 Article 13 of Decree No. 110/2013/ND-CP, a fine of between VND 7,000,000 and VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed for one the acts of “Notarizing testament in case the testator does not request the notarization himself/herself; at the time of notarization, the testator is suffering from mental illness or other diseases without awareness and control of his/her acts or there are grounds that the making of testament has can not be aware of and make all his acts or has signs of deception, intimidation or coercion”.

The above fine is also imposed for the following acts:

- Notarizing contract of real estate mortgage inconsistently with Clause 2 Article 54 of the Law on Notary of Vietnam;

- Notarizing the written agreement of division of heritage property and written declaration and receipt of heritage property in case of inheritance as prescribed by law but the person requesting notarization has no documents to prove the relationship between the testator and inheritor under the testament that the testator has left no testament;

- Notarizing the written rejection of heritage property in case of inheritor’s rejection in order to perform his/her property obligation for other persons; notarizing the rejection of heritage property which has exceeded 06 months from the date of inheritance opening;

- Notarizing translations in cases where papers or documents requested to be translated have been erased, modified, added, subtracted, or damaged or worn out so that the content cannot be clearly identified.

Besides, Decree No. 67/2015/ND-CP also stipulates that fine of between VND 10,000,000 and VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for the act of notarizing the translation in case you know or should know that the original was issued by the wrong authority or is invalid; fake original; papers and documents requested to be translated are state secrets; papers and documents are prohibited from dissemination according to the provisions of law.

View other provisions at Decree No. 67/2015/ND-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from October 01, 2015.

Thu Ba

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