Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, the act of using fake documents to carry out administrative procedures in the land sector will result in administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution. Below are the forms and levels of administrative sanctions:
Clause 3, Article 27 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP stipulates:
- Fine from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 for cases of using fake documents in administrative procedures and other land-related work that is not yet up to the level of criminal prosecution.
Pursuant to the above regulations, if the act of using a fake Certificate to transfer land use rights and house ownership rights is not yet at the level of criminal prosecution, the maximum fine will be 20 million VND.
Additional penalty: In addition to the fine, the competent authority will confiscate documents that have been erased or corrected to distort the content; fake documents used (according to Clause 4, Article 27 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP).
Remedial measures: Pursuant to Clause 5, Article 27 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP, in case the land registration agency has registered changes in the land records and discovered that the documents in the change registration file (the registration file is fake), the results of the change registration procedure when transferring will be canceled.
In addition to stipulating the penalty for the use of fake documents, Decree 123/2024/ND-CP also stipulates the penalty for cases of dishonest declaration, erasure, and repair of real estate documents, specifically:
- Fine from 5 - 10 million VND for cases of dishonest declaration of land use or erasing, correcting, or distorting the content of documents and certificates in land use leading to the issuance of Certificates and the conversion, transfer, lease, inheritance, donation, mortgage, and capital contribution using land use rights being distorted but not to the extent of criminal prosecution.
- Fine from 2 - 5 million VND for cases of erasing, correcting, or distorting the content of documents and certificates in land use that do not fall into the above cases.
Thus, those who use fake red books to buy and sell real estate will be administratively fined up to 20 million VND if discovered and are still valid; if they satisfy the factors that constitute the crime of fraud and appropriation of property, they will be imprisoned with the highest penalty of life imprisonment according to Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code.
