Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh - Director of Bright Legal Law Firm - said that the question "Will being fined for dumping soil and leveling fields to prepare for building houses" is often encountered when consulting on the law.
Many people think that only when "build a house, have walls, have a roof" is it considered a violation, while just pouring soil and leveling is okay. This view is not accurate," Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh emphasized.
According to Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh, the act of dumping soil and leveling ground on agricultural land (especially rice land) causing terrain deformation, changing land structure, making land unable to continue to be used for the right agricultural purpose as determined can be considered as the act of "land destruction" defined in Clause 27 Article 3 of the 2024 Land Law (distorting terrain, reducing soil quality, causing soil pollution that causes loss or reduction of land use capacity according to the determined purpose). Depending on the severity, the act can be handled in one of two directions:
- If the level is not enough to completely change the purpose of use but reduces the quality of the land, changes the land surface: Being fined for the act of destroying land according to Article 14 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP, the fine is from 2 - 100 million VND depending on the affected area, accompanied by measures to force restoration to the original state.
- If leveling and soil pouring is a clear and intentional preparation step to build houses and solid works (for example, completely leveling rice fields into hard soil foundations, building high foundations to prepare to pour foundations): functional agencies can completely determine that this is an act of arbitrarily changing the land use purpose illegally, and be penalized according to Article 8 or Article 10 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP (depending on the type of land), without waiting until the house is completed.
Providing more information about the time of being sanctioned, Mr. Tran Tuan Anh said that as soon as commune/ward land administration officials or functional forces detect and make a record of administrative violations at the scene, sanctioning is carried out, regardless of how far the project has been completed. In fact, most cases that are strictly handled are detected right from the leveling and soil pouring stage, because this is the easiest sign to recognize through field inspection or remote sensing images, satellite images that some localities have currently applied to monitor land changes.
I also add that the renovation and upgrading of the landbed to serve the right agricultural purpose (for example, preventing flooding to continue cultivation), not building solid structures on top, is usually not considered a violation. But the boundary between'renovating agricultural land' and'preparing for illegal conversion' is quite fragile, so people need to be very cautious, it is best to discuss with local land administration officials in advance if they intend to level on a large scale," Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh emphasized.
Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh noted that the above-mentioned consulting contents are based on current legal regulations and need to be considered based on each specific case. Whether or not an act of soil dumping or leveling on agricultural land is penalized, which act is penalized and how much specific penalty depends on the type of land, area, current land use status, level of impact on land as well as the actual purpose of land use of land users.
