Answering the above question, lawyer Quach Thanh Luc - Director of Phap Tri Law Company Limited, Hanoi Bar Association - said that in fact, many land plots have been used stably by families through many generations, the boundaries are clearly established and respected by all parties.
However, there are still cases where one or both households are granted land use right certificates (red books), and when checking, comparing or re-measuring according to the cadastral map, it is discovered that the land of this house is in the red book of the other house, or the boundary is overlapping by several tens of centimeters.
According to the lawyer, when encountering this situation, people need to be very calm. For example, in reality, the land plot only has 5m of frontage, but the red book shows 6m. If only relying on the certificate to request to take more land from neighbors, it is not necessarily correct.
The first thing to do is to check whether the issuance of the red book is in accordance with regulations or not, whether it is consistent with the dossier, cadastral map and technical coordinate system or not. The legal value of the red book is only guaranteed when it is consistent with the entire cadastral dossier and legal procedure.
In many cases, land use boundaries have been established and respected by families through many generations, which is a factor that needs to be prioritized for consideration first, in order to avoid arising disputes and affecting village and neighborhood relations.
Explaining the cause of the error, lawyer Quach Thanh Luc said that the red book is issued by a competent authority, but it is still made based on cadastral maps and measurement results performed by humans. Therefore, even if it is a regular map, errors are still likely to occur.
From my experience of contacting many land records, I realize that red books issued around before 2020, almost always have to be adjusted when carrying out subsequent procedures. There are cases of errors of a few centimeters, and there are also cases of errors up to several meters" - the lawyer said.
According to him, the reason stems from the fact that many localities previously used VLAP maps and measuring systems that did not reach the current accuracy. And in fact, not every land plot is fully marked, and each household's border is signed before mapping. Therefore, the appearance of errors is inevitable.
The lawyer believes that in cases of small deviations such as a few centimeters or shortages at the beginning and end of the land plot, people should consider adjusting the certificate to be consistent with the actual land use boundaries that have been established stably for many years, instead of just absolutely relying on the information on the red book.
Regarding certificates issued from 2020 to date, lawyers said that the quality of measurement has been significantly improved thanks to the application of modern equipment and advanced data processing technology.
According to the lawyer, currently, the drawing system has been equipped with many technical solutions such as tilting compensation, error correction and coordinate system synchronization, helping to significantly reduce errors in the certificate issuance process.
In the period before 2020, many land administration officials were aware of the possibility of errors, but still had to carry out the issuance of red books to ensure progress. The errors will be corrected when people carry out procedures such as transfer, name transfer or correction of certificates.
Therefore, the fact that some red books issued before 2020 in many localities still have errors is relatively common. People should not absolutize information on certificates to generate disputes with neighbors, but need to respect the land use boundaries that have been established stably and maintain village and neighborhood affection," the lawyer recommended.
