Answering readers of Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Quach Thanh Luc - Director of Phap Tri Law Company (Hanoi Bar Association) said that in case land users already have documents as prescribed in Article 137 of the Land Law, the issue to be concerned about is what is the basis for determining the area recognized as residential land when issuing a certificate of land use rights.
According to the lawyer, determining the area of residential land is important because it directly affects the legitimate rights and interests of land users, including the right to build houses and financial obligations to be fulfilled when residential land is recognized.
Article 137 of the Land Law stipulates the cases and documents used as the basis for issuing land use right certificates. However, this article does not specifically stipulate the area recognized as residential land as well as the amount of land use fees to be paid.
To determine the area of residential land recognized, people need to base on Article 141 of the Land Law. According to the lawyer, Article 141 is designed to supplement cases with documents specified in Article 137, thereby clarifying the area recognized as residential land.
For documents under Article 137 made before October 15, 1993, if the document states residential land, residential land or long-term residential area land but does not specifically determine the area of residential land, it is necessary to base on Clause 1 or Clause 2 of Article 141 to determine.
Accordingly, in case the land was used before 1980, the residential land area is determined according to the residential land recognition limit. In case the land was used from 1980 to before October 15, 1993, the residential land area is determined according to the residential land allocation limit.
These are regulations that people can base on to determine the area of residential land to be recognized," lawyer Quach Thanh Luc said.
For cases with land allocation and land decentralization decisions from October 15, 1993 to present, the type of land is determined according to the content recorded on the papers.
After determining the residential land area according to Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 141, if there is still an area outside the area that has been determined, this area will be considered according to the current status of land use. In this case, land users must fulfill the obligation to pay land use fees according to regulations.
According to lawyer Quach Thanh Luc, in fact, there are also cases where documents prepared before October 15, 1993, recorded as agricultural land, but houses have been built on the land for a long time. This is a case where if only based on Article 141, the entire issue cannot be resolved.
The lawyer said that in reality, these cases can be identified by functional agencies as land use violations, thereby requiring land users to fulfill financial obligations, return illegal profits, and even handle violating works.
However, according to the lawyer, Article 10 of the Land Law and Article 7 of Decree 101/2024/ND-CP already have regulations for this case.
If the document records it as agricultural land but the current status has built houses and the construction of houses was carried out before October 15, 1993, it is considered for recognition of residential land. The residential land area is recognized according to the residential land recognition limit as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 138 of the Land Law.
In case the house is built after October 15, 1993, the residential land area is recognized according to the residential land allocation limit. According to the lawyer, the recognized area in this case will be smaller than in the case of applying the residential land recognition limit.
