What is the legal coverage of a house built on agricultural land?
Houses built on agricultural land may be construed as separate houses built on agricultural land by households or individuals but not yet administratively sanctioned by local administrations at the time of construction or completion of construction and committed by sellers not to be dismantled.
How legal is it to buy a house built on farmland?
Houses built on farmland can cause problems even if the seller commits the house to being "legal."
* Improper land use
Article 5 of the 2024 Land Law provides for the principles of land use as follows:
- The land is used for proper purposes.
- Being sustainable, economical and efficient for land and natural resources on the surface and underground.
- To protect soil, protect the environment and adapt to climate change, not to abuse plant protection drugs and chemical fertilizers to pollute and degenerate soil.
- To exercise the rights and perform the obligations of land users during the land use term in accordance with this Law and other relevant laws; not to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of users of adjacent and surrounding land.
Thus, houses shall only be built on residential land (residential land), if building on other types of land is the act of using land for improper purposes.
* Not a legitimate transaction
Even if the seller commits that the house is legally covered, that house is also ineligible for sale and cannot be transferred because there is no red book, pink book.
This condition is specified in Clause 1 Article 160 of the 2023 Law on Housing. Accordingly, any transaction in housing sale, lease purchase, gifting, exchange, mortgage, or capital contribution must satisfy the following conditions:
- Having certificates as prescribed by law, except for cases specified in Clause 2 of this Article;
- Not falling into the case of ownership disputes, complaints or lawsuits under the law on settlement of disputes, complaints and denunciations;
- The time limit for house ownership is expired, for cases of ownership of houses with definite terms;
- Not being distrained for execution of judgments or administrative decisions of competent state agencies, or not being subject to the application of temporary emergency measures or preventive measures under decisions of courts or competent state agencies;
- The land expropriation decision or notice of house clearance or demolition issued by a competent authority is not required;
- The conditions in Point b and Point c of this Clause are not applicable to the sale or lease purchase of off - the - plan housing.
Thus, a house that wishes to have its ownership certified (written in a red or pink book) must have papers proving its ownership; however, a house built on agricultural land cannot be proved because this is a violation.
* Not legalized
According to Decree No. 16/2022 / ND-CP, many violations in the field of construction are legalized such as building houses without construction permits, illegally building, building inconsistently with permits, ... if meeting the conditions prescribed by law.
However, acts of building dwelling houses on agricultural land shall not be legalized but shall instead be fined and forced to dismantle the dwelling houses in order to restore their original state.
* Fined and demolished
Pursuant to Clause 3, Article 9; Clause 3, Article 8; and Clause 2, Article 10 of Decree No. 123/2024/ND-CP, acts of converting land from special-use forests, production forests or rice-growing land into residential land shall be subject to a fine and remedial measures.
From the above reasons can be seen, it is not recommended to buy houses built on agricultural land in any case, even if it is pledged to be “legal cover".
