The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment received a petition from voters in Thanh Hoa province with the content: "Request to consider amending and supplementing the provisions of the Civil Code and land law related to inheritance of land use rights in the direction of adjusting the statute of limitations for lawsuits to be appropriate, and at the same time fully consider the factors of stable and long-term land management and use, contributions and obligations to support parents, in order to limit disputes, maintain family morality and ensure social stability at the grassroots level".
Regarding this proposal, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has the following opinions:
Clause 5, Article 23 of the Land Law stipulates the rights of citizens to land, including the right to inherit land use rights as prescribed by law. Clause 1, Article 27 of the Land Law stipulates:
Land users are entitled to exercise the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, donate land use rights; mortgage, contribute capital with land use rights in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other relevant laws.
Point c, Clause 3, Article 27 of the Land Law stipulates: "c) Documents on inheritance of land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land are notarized or certified according to the provisions of civil law" and point d, Clause 1, Article 37 of the Land Law stipulates: "d) Land users have the right to inherit land use rights and assets owned by themselves attached to their land according to wills or according to law...".
At the same time, Clause 4, Article 45 of the Land Law stipulates that in case of inheritance of land use rights, the heir is entitled to exercise rights when there is a Certificate or is eligible to be granted a Certificate according to the provisions of this Law.
Clause 3, Article 150 of the Civil Code stipulates that the statute of limitations for initiating a lawsuit is the time limit within which the subject is entitled to initiate a lawsuit to request the Court to resolve a civil case to protect the legitimate rights and interests that are infringed; if that time limit expires, the right to initiate a lawsuit is lost.
At the same time, the Civil Code has clearly stipulated the method of calculating the statute of limitations, the validity of the statute of limitations, the continuity of the statute of limitations, the start of the statute of limitations for lawsuits... (Chapter X, section 2 from Article 151 to Article 157). The division of inheritance of assets, including assets that are land use rights, is carried out according to the provisions of the Fourth Part of the Civil Code (from Article 609 to Article 662), according to which the Civil Code has general regulations on inheritance (Chapter XXI from Article 609 to Article 623), regulations on inheritance according to wills (Chapter XXII from Article 624 to Article 648), regulations on legal inheritance (Chapter XXIII from Article 649 to Article 655) and payment and inheritance division (Chapter XXIV from Article 656 to Article 662).
Thus, the law on land does not stipulate the statute of limitations for initiating lawsuits and the division of inheritance of land use rights; on the basis of the division of inheritance according to the provisions of the Civil Code, the person who receives inheritance of land use rights shall carry out land registration and issuance of Certificates according to the provisions of the law on land. The statute of limitations for initiating lawsuits when there is a dispute and the contribution and obligation to support parents on the basis of voluntary commitment, self-agreement, and self-responsibility shall be implemented according to the provisions of civil law.
