Answering readers of Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Quach Thanh Luc - Director of Phap Tri Law Company (Hanoi Bar Association) said that when issuing land use right certificates or resolving land-related rights, one of the important issues is to determine when the land was used stably: before 1980, before October 15, 1993 or after October 15, 1993. The determination of the time of stable land use has been specifically regulated by law.
The concept of stable land use is specified in Clause 38, Article 3 of the 2024 Land Law. Accordingly, stable land use is the use of land for a certain purpose, calculated from the time of starting to use land for that purpose to the time the competent state agency considers stable land use.
However, in reality, the determination can generate many complex situations. For example, at one point, people dug ponds, then built houses, then filled them to plant trees and continued to switch to other land use purposes. Then, the issue is how to determine the time of stable land use.
According to lawyer Quach Thanh Luc, the determination can first be based on the documents specified in Article 137 of the Land Law. If the land user has these documents, the time of stable land use is determined based on those documents.
For example, if people have used land stably to build houses and have purchase and sale and transfer papers certified by the commune-level People's Committee in 1991, this is the basis for determining the time of land use. In case the land use right transfer document is certified in 1990 or 1991, this time can be determined to be before October 15, 1993.
In case there are no of the above documents, the issue raised is which documents will determine the time of stable land use.
There are many types of documents that can be used as a basis and listed in the appendix of Decree 151. These include documents related to temporary residence, temporary absence, permanent residence, citizen identification card; tax payment documents; cadastral maps; inventory books; documents established at commune-level People's Committees related to cadastral management after 1980.
In addition, people can use other documents such as electricity and water bill receipts, fines payment documents or documents showing the process of living and using land at that location from a certain time.
According to the lawyer, if documents and materials show different times, it is possible to base on documents with the earliest time to determine the time of starting to use land stably according to regulations.
