On the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment's Information Portal, a citizen in Bac Ninh wondered:
In August 2004, my family bought land sold illegally by the village, and still keeps the village's receipt for money, the Commune People's Committee has a hanging seal. Currently, the land plot is built with a fence, the family has used it to plant perennial trees; the land is not in dispute; not in cases where it must be recovered. My family has filed a dossier requesting the Ward People's Committee to consider issuing a Certificate of Land Use Rights according to the actual situation (land for planting trees).
The Economic Department of the Ward People's Committee has issued an official letter with the content of answering that the land plot is not eligible for issuance for 2 basic reasons: (1) the land plot is located in a residential planning area, so a Certificate of Land Use Rights is not issued as a land for perennial crops; (2) The land plot is not subject to the application of Article 140 of the 2024 Land Law (specifically citing point c of Article 140) with the reason that there is no house on the land.
Please ask the Ministry, in my case, can I apply for land allocation according to the current status, if not, what specific articles, clauses, and regulations are based on? Is it correct that the ward does not implement the allocation according to the current status? And how to request the ward to allocate (if eligible for allocation)".
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has the following opinions:
The content of your reflection is a specific case and needs to be based on archived records, specific regulations of the locality issued under their authority to consider and resolve; therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment does not have enough information and basis to answer specifically. The Ministry would like to state some principles as follows:
According to Clause 3, Article 140 of the 2024 Land Law, in case the land is used stably from July 1, 2004 to before July 1, 2014, and is certified by the commune-level People's Committee as having no disputes and in accordance with the district-level land use plan or general plan, zoning plan, construction plan or rural planning, it is considered for issuance of a Certificate according to regulations.
For this case, the fact that the land plot does not have a house is not a basis for determining that it does not fall into the cases specified in Article 140. However, due to the current status of the land plot without a house, the recognition of residential land does not fall into the cases specified in points a and b, clause 3, Article 140; the remaining area is considered for recognition according to the current status of land use according to point c, clause 3, Article 140, if it fully meets the conditions according to the provisions of law.
Therefore, in case Mr./Ms. requests a Certificate according to the current status of land use for perennial crops, it must be considered on the basis of fully meeting the conditions specified in Clause 3, Article 140 of the Land Law and relevant legal regulations. In case the conditions according to regulations are not met, the competent authority has no basis for issuing a Certificate.
Currently, according to the provisions of Article 15 of Decree No. 49/2026/ND-CP, the Government has assigned the Provincial People's Committee to regulate the order and administrative procedures for land to organize implementation in localities. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment requests you to send reflections and recommendations to the Department of Agriculture and Environment where the land is located for consideration and response according to their authority based on specific dossiers.
