Vietnam: Using false notary public card shall be fined up to VND 20 million

LawNet would like to answer Ms. Lan’s question as follows:

According to current regulations of Decree No. 110/2013/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, anyone who uses false notary public card or uses false notary public card of other persons for notary practice shall be fined from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000. Specifically, according to Clause 4 Article 14 of Decree No. 110/2013/NĐ-CP, fines for act of violation of regulation on notary public are as follows:

Article 14. Act of violation of regulation on notary public

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4. A fine of between VND 10,000,000 and 20,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the acts as follows:

a) Using false notary public card;

b) Using false notary public card of other persons for notary practice;

…

Moreover, Decree No. 110/2013/NĐ-CP also stipulates fines for other acts of violation of regulation on notary public as follows:

- A fine of between VND 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the acts as follows:

+ Notarization is done outside the practicing notarization organization’s office inconsistently with the provisions of Article 39 of the Law on Notarization of Vietnam;

+ Notarization has not been done within the prescribed time limit;

+ Fixing technical errors of notarized documents improperly

+ Harassing, making things difficult for the person requesting the notarization;

+ Refusing to notarize contract or transaction without grounds.

- A fine of between VND 3,000,000 and 7,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the acts as follows:

+ Disclosing the notarized contents without the consent in writing of the notarization requester unless otherwise provided by law;

+ Notarizing contract or transaction without signature of notarization requester and of notary public on each page of contract or transaction;

+ Receiving or requiring any amount of money, and other material benefits from the notarization requester in addition to notary fees as prescribed by law, specified notary remuneration and agreed costs;

+ Failing to witness the notarization requester to sign on the notarized document unless otherwise specified by law;

+ The notary’s testimony in the notarized document has missed contents as prescribed in Article 5 of the Law on Notary of Vietnam.

- A fine of between VND 7,000,000 and 10,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the acts as follows:

+ Notarizing beyond powers as prescribed in Article 37 of the Law on Notarization of Vietnam;

+ Notarizing relating to the property and interests of himself/herself or spouse, natural parents, parents in law, adoptive parents, natural children, adopted children, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, paternal grandparents, maternal grandparents, siblings, spouse’s siblings, nephew or niece as child of son or daughter, adopted child;

+ Permitting other persons to use his/her notary public card to perform notary practice;

+ Notarizing the modification, supplementation or annulment of contract and transaction inconsistently with provisions in Article 44 of the Law on Notarization of Vietnam;

+ Notarizing contracts or transactions in case there is no ground to determine the use rights and private ownership of property while participating in the transaction;

+ Notarizing contract and transaction with illegal contents and in contradiction with social morality;

+ Modifying, erasing and falsifying contents of notary public card.

- A fine of between VND 20,000,000 and 30,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the acts as follows:

+ Forging notary public card;

+ Individual has no authorized notarization but operating in the name of authorized notary.

In particular, depriving the right to use notary public card for 12 months for acts of prior notarization in contract or transaction when the parties of the contract or transaction have not been identified yet.

Nguyen Trinh

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