WHAT IS NEEDED WHEN REPLACING THE “RED BOOK” FORM OF HOUSING

Looking at the comments below the newsletter, I found that besides being supportive, many readers are still wondering about changing the form of the Certificate of Land Use Rights, the ownership of property attached to the land (hereinafter collectively referred to as the “Certificate”).

For land users, one of the contents of interest in the Land Law 2024 is the issuance of Certificates. Upon learning more, I noticed that the new regulation has changed from the content, conditions for issuing Certificates and the form of Certificates are also adjusted.

Certificate Issuance Conditions. Inheriting the provisions of the current Land Law 2013, the Land Law 2024 still provides for four (4) cases of issuing certificates for the first time to citizens. However, the new Law has “relaxed” some conditions such as land users who do not have land papers but have used land stably, without disputes since July 1, 2014 (extending the period of 10 years compared to the current regulations) to be granted certificates; assigned provincial People's Committee (formerly under the Government) to regulate the types of land use rights documents (QSDA) to establish before October 15, 1993 in accordance with local realities.

It can be seen that although there have been no major changes, the new policy has and will have a positive impact, making it easier and easier to issue certificates for citizens for the first time.

Changes to the Certificate form. Changing the sample (workpiece) and the name of the Certificate is noticeable, but the effectiveness for the population may require more time to evaluate.

We have a “history” of issuing and changing the Certificate several times. Previously, there were 2 types: (i) QSD-certificate in the form issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Land (paper in red should be called “red book”) and (ii) Certificate of Ownership of Housing and Residential Land Use Rights issued by the Ministry of Construction confirming ownership of housing and urban housing (paper which is pink so it is called “pink book”).

Since December 10, 2009, we have unified the above categories into QSDA Certificates, ownership of houses and other property related to land managed by the Ministry of T&MT. By the 2024 Land Law, the name was changed from “Certificate of QSDA, ownership of housing and other property related to land” to “Certificate of QSDA, ownership of property associated with land” (dropping the phrase “ownership of housing”). Thus, the issuance of a new form of Certificate is necessary because the new Law has regulated the name of the Certificate.

Looking at the draft Circular, we noticed that the information contained in the new Certificate is essentially the same as the current Certificate, except for the reduction of the additional pages of the QR code.

The size of the new Certificate is expected to “shrink”. If the current Certificate form is designed for 4 pages on 2 A4 sheets, the new Certificate form has only 1 A4 sheet with 2 pages. According to information from the drafting agency, the new template will be designed to strengthen the security and security elements, add the elements of anti-counterfeiting closed and anti-counterfeiting open.

The next noteworthy change point in the new Certificate form has a QR code. QR code helps the user to look up the information printed on the issued Certificate. However, Article 17 of the draft Circular stipulates that the information on the Certificate and the feedback when looking up the QR code are the same.

Many shared opinions expecting more groundbreaking changes in the Certificate template. In the meantime, cutting down a page may not be necessary, it may even affect preservation as over time the important information on page 1 may become blurred and blurred for objective reasons, and may not be as secure as pages 2 and 3 as the old template.

The new Certificate form still shows information about the land plot plan (shape, size of the plot edge) but in a too small scope, it is difficult to fully express it as the current Certificate form, which has page 3 drawing the boundaries of the land plot diagram. On the other hand, the information that many land users want is the coordinates of the top of the land plot is not yet available. When the certificate does not have coordinates it can cause difficulties for the parties when specifically determining the location of the land plot in the field.

There are many cases where the parties trade land in the form of a Single Certificate, but it is difficult to determine the difference between the area on the Certificate and the actual area. To find out the coordinates the land user must contact the authority that carries out the cadastral extraction of the land plot - a procedure that is inherently cumbersome in practice. This is a difficult problem for residents when the Certificate does not have coordinates.

In fact, those who have ever bought a home probably go through an “unwritten” procedure of paying a fee to informally “ask” for land extract information for planning inspection.

To ask a question from a resource officer, I learned that the certificate does not show land coordinate information due to the infrastructure, data and management capabilities of each locality. To record the coordinates of land plots, a complete update of the map of the current state of the land with the exact proportions is required. In some localities and some soils such as agricultural land, the number of coordinates to be recorded is so large that it is difficult to present the information on the Certificate.

Thus, with the current Certificate form (2 sheets) or the new Certificate form (1 sheet), it is not as important to the citizens as the Certificate should show all the necessary information regarding the land plot.

We expect that in localities that already have infrastructure and land data available when looking up QR codes, in addition to feedback such as information on certificates, residents will also receive additional information about boundaries, coordinates and other necessary information about land plots, which is convenient for people in land transactions.

If the above information about the land plot when looking up the QR code remains “compact” as the certificate form is expected to be issued, it will still be difficult for people to go to “find” the land plot.

Author:Lawyer, Master Pham Thanh Tuan is a lawyer of the Hanoi Bar Association; an arbitrator of the Vietnam Commercial and Justice Arbitration Center (VietJAC). Mr. Tuan has almost 20 years of experience in the field of real estate and construction legal consulting, and is currently the legal director of WeLand Real Estate Development and Business Joint Stock Company.

(Article published in Dantri newspaper on 23/05/2024) https://dantri.com.vn/tam-diem/dieu-can-thiet-khi-thay-mau-so-do-nha-dat-20240521150330784.htm

‍