Can contracted agricultural land be transferred?

Is contracted farm land transferrable? (Illustrative image)

1. What is farm land?

Currently, land law does not define farm land; however, it can be understood that farm land is the land allocated by the state to companies, organizations, or localities for management. These entities can subsequently contract the land to individuals or households.

Individuals and households receive farm land in the form of a contract, while the organization is the entity to which the state allocates this farm land. There exists a contractual relationship between households, individuals, and the contracting organization. Therefore, contracted land must be exploited, managed, and used in accordance with the contract and the form agreed upon by the parties.

2. Is contracted farm land transferrable?

Article 19 of Decree 43/2014/ND-CP stipulates the cases where a Certificate of Land Use Rights, Ownership of Housing and Other Assets attached to the land is not issued:

(1) Organizations, community groups assigned land by the State for management in cases stipulated by Article 8 of the Land Law.

(2) Individuals managing or using agricultural land belonging to the communal public land fund.

(3) Individuals leasing or subleasing land from land users, except for cases of leasing or subleasing land from investors constructing and operating infrastructure in industrial zones, industrial clusters, export processing zones, high-tech zones, and economic zones.

(4) Individuals contracting land in farms, forest enterprises, and agricultural and forestry enterprises, management boards of protective forests, and special-use forests.

(5) Individuals using land that is not eligible for the issuance of a Certificate of Land Use Rights, Ownership of Housing and Other Assets attached to the land.

(6) Individuals using land that meets the conditions for issuance of a Certificate of Land Use Rights, Ownership of Housing and Other Assets attached to the land but have received notification or decision of land recovery from a competent state authority.

(7) Organizations and commune-level People's Committees assigned land by the State without land levy for use in constructing public works including roads, water channels, pipelines for gasoline, oil, gas; power transmission lines, information transmission lines; outdoor recreational zones; cemeteries and graveyards not for business purposes.

Individuals contracting land in farms belong to one of the seven cases where a Certificate of Land Use Rights cannot be issued. This regulation is consistent with the definition of contracted farm land as stated above because the individuals receiving contracted land are not the entities directly allocated land by the state. Hence, individuals contracting land in farms are not considered land users under the 2013 Land Law. Therefore, individuals, households receiving contracted land enjoy the rights as per the land contract and do not have the rights of land users, cannot be issued a Certificate of Land Use Rights, and thus cannot legally transfer farm land.

Hoa Hong

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