Answering readers of Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Nguyen Thanh Phong (Hanoi Bar Association) said: Recently, he received a case of a resident buying land with a handwritten paper from 1993, then managing and using it stably until now and fulfilling all tax payment obligations annually.
This person wishes to be granted a Certificate of Land Use Rights for the entire land plot. However, because the transaction was carried out in 1993, after more than 30 years, the previous handwritten purchase and sale documents are no longer kept. When seeking a lawyer, people only have their citizen identification card and annual tax receipts left.
According to lawyer Phong, based on initial information, this case will carry out the procedure for issuing a Certificate of first-time land use rights for the land plot according to point a, clause 1, section 11, Appendix I of Decree 151/2025 on issuing a certificate of first-time land use rights. At the same time, the expected land use fee to be paid is nearly 5 billion VND, which is a very large amount of money.
However, after receiving and studying the dossier, instead of advising people to submit red book applications for the first time, the lawyer instructed them to carry out procedures to request the provision of cadastral records of the land plot, and at the same time received authorization to work with the Commune-level People's Committee and the Branch of the Land Registration Office.
Through the cadastral records of the land plot, important information such as plot number, plot number, map sheet, area, user, land use purpose... is determined. These are important information to determine the legal status and carry out procedures for issuing Land Use Right Certificates.
Notably, through checking the cadastral records, the lawyer discovered that the land plot that the people received for transfer had been granted a Certificate since 1986. Therefore, this case will be implemented according to Clause 2, Section 11 of Appendix I of Decree 151/2025 on registration of land use right changes, instead of carrying out the procedure for issuing a Certificate for the first time.
However, the Certificate issued in 1986 is no longer valid, and the handwritten purchase and sale documents of the people have also been lost. Therefore, the lawyer has worked with the Commune People's Committee to have a written reply, as a basis for carrying out the next procedures.
According to lawyer Phong, people will have to carry out two procedures simultaneously, including notifying the re-issuance of the Certificate for the lost book and registering changes to transfer land use rights. Both procedures are carried out at the Branch of the Land Registration Office and submitted online, so people only have to carry out at one agency.
In addition, a notable benefit is that people are likely not to have to pay the estimated land use fee of nearly 5 billion VND as in the case of carrying out procedures for issuing a certificate for the first time. The reason is that the land plot has been granted a certificate before, so people register changes to transfer ownership, instead of issuing a certificate for the first time for land without papers.
From the above case, lawyer Nguyen Thanh Phong noted that the information in the cadastral records of the land plot plays a very important role.
Before starting to carry out the procedure for issuing a red book, people should request to provide the cadastral records of the land plot to fully assess the legal status. On that basis, people can choose the option and carry out the next procedures in accordance with the provisions of law," lawyer Phong recommended.
