Shall the purchase of real estate by handwritten papers be consistent with the provisions to register for permanent residence in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 21 of the Residence Law 2020 of Vietnam, citizens when register their lawful place of permanent residence must submit application for permanent residence registration includes:

Declaration of change to residence information;

Written proof of ownership of a lawful place of residence.

Papers and documents proving the lawful places ownership of residence are stipulated specifically at Clause 1 Article of Decree 62/2021/NĐ-CP:

A paper or document certifying land use rights and house or land-attached asset ownership (that contains information on his/her house) issued by a competent agency;

The construction permit required by the construction law (for works subject to grant of construction permits and completely built);

A contract on purchase and sale of the state-owned house or a paper on liquidation of the state-owned house;

A contract on purchase of the house or a paper proving the handover and receipt of the house issued by a housing business enterprise that builds houses for sale;

A paper on purchase, hire-purchase, receipt of donation, receipt of inheritance, receipt of contributed capital, or acceptance of exchange of the house as specified by the land law and housing law;

A paper on handover of the “house of gratitude” or “house of great unity”, or on allocation of the house or residential land to the concerned individual or household;

A legally effective document issued by the concerned court or state administrative agency competent to permit the citizen to own the house;

A paper issued by the commune-level People’s Committee or district-level People’s Committee of the locality without commune-level administrative units, certifying that the citizen’s house or residential land is not involved in any dispute over house ownership or residential land use rights, in case of absence of one of the above papers;

A paper on vehicle registration/inspection proving that the vehicle is under the citizen’s ownership. For vehicles not subject to registration/inspection, this paper may be replaced by a written certification issued by the commune-level People’s Committee or district-level People’s Committee of the locality without commune-level administrative units stating that the vehicle is used for residential purpose; or a written certification of registration of a place for frequent parking of the vehicle if the citizen’s registered place of residence is other than where the vehicle is registered or if such vehicle is not subject to registration/inspection;

A paper or document proving the lease or lending of, or permission for residence in, one’s lawful place of residence to/for the citizen, which is a document on the lease, lending, or permission for another person’s residence, made by the concerned agency, organization or individual in accordance with the land law and housing law;

A paper issued by the concerned agency or organization bearing the signature of the head and seal of such agency or organization, proving that the citizen is entitled to allocation, use or transfer of the house, or has his/her house built on the land area allocated by the agency or organization for house construction (for houses and land managed by agencies or organizations).

Therefore, according to the above regulation, of all the papers and documents, contract on purchase of the house in accordance with the provisions of the law on land and housing of Vietnam.The question is whether the purchase of real estate by handwritten papers will be consistent with the provisions of the law on land and housing to prove the lawful residence of citizens?

To answer this question, we need to take a look at Clause 3 Article 167 of the Law on Land 2013 of Vietnam. Accordingly, 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. Therefore, if there is no notarization or authentication, the transfer is considered invalid and does not meet the requirements for applying for a certificate of land use rights.

However, in some cases, buying land by handwritten papers without notarization or authentication is still recognized by Vietnamese law. Clause 54 Article 2 Decree 01/2017/NĐ-CP on amendments to the decrees on the implementation off the land law prescribes as following:

“A user of a land parcel that has not been certified, if using such land parcel under a following circumstance but not in an event defined in Section 2 of this Article, shall apply for land registration and for initial certification of land use right with or without ownership of house and properties attached to land as per the Land Law and this Decree without undergoing the procedure for transfer of land use right. In addition, the agency taking in the application cannot request the transferee of land use right to submit the contract and documents on land use right transfer as per the laws:

a) The land parcel was acquired through transfer or donation of land use right before 01st January 2008;

b) The land parcel was acquired through transfer or donation of land use right from 01st January 2008 to a date before 01st July 2014 and the documents on land use right pursuant to Article 100 of the Land Law and Article 18 of this Decree is are available;

c) The land parcel was acquired through inheritance of land use right before 01st July 2014”

Therefore, in cases that citizens purchase land and house by handwritten papers whose transactions have occurred before 01st July 2014 is still recognized when they apply for the first land registration in accordance to the law on land of Vietnam. Citizens can use this handwritten paper enclosed with the first land registration certified by the Commune People’s Committee or the land registration agency to make papers and documents proving their lawful places.

To the transactions which have occured after 01st July 2014, but the payment and the land exchange are completed, buyers may apply the provisions of Article 129 of the Civil Code of Vietnam to request the Court to issue a decision on recognition of the validity of such transaction. After that, buyers can use the signed handwritten paper and the Court's decision on recognition of the transaction as a basis to prove their lawful residence.

Buying and selling houses with handwritten documents is considered as one of the most popular forms of buying and selling ever, although it has not been widely recognized by the Government of Vietnam. With this handwritten document confirming the real estate transaction, citizens can use it to prove their lawful residence when applying the procedures for permanent residence registration. However, before using, depending on the specific case, citizens need to "validate" this handwritten paper according to the instructions mentioned above.

Bao Ngoc

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