The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has just published a Handbook guiding state management in the land sector when implementing two-level local governance.
One of the notable contents of this document is the procedure for land recovery due to violations of the law, stipulated in Article 81 of the 2024 Land Law. This is an important guide to help localities strictly handle violations, while ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of the people.
According to Article 81 of the Land Law, the State has the right to reclaim land in cases where land users violate land laws such as: using it for the wrong purpose, encroaching, not putting the land into use on time or not complying with the decision on related administrative sanctions.
To ensure transparency and compliance with legal procedures, the Law requires the revocation process to be carried out in clear steps. This is specified in the Handbook issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, with the goal of helping the grassroots government no longer be confused in implementation, while preventing land recovery without basis or improvulation.
The Handbook guides the procedures for land recovery according to the following 4 main steps:
Step 1. The competent authority or person sanctioning the administrative violation shall propose or the competent inspection or examination agency shall send the conclusion of the inspection or examination to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the province/commune where the land is recovered.
Step 2. Within no more than 15 days from the date of receipt of the proposal or conclusion of the agency, competent person, or agency with land management function at the provincial/commune level, prepare a dossier for land recovery and submit it to the Chairman of the People's Committee at the same level.
Step 3. Within 05 days from the date of receipt of the dossier, the Chairman of the Provincial/Commune People's Committee is responsible for notifying the land recovery to the person whose land is recovered, the owner of the property attached to the land, and the person with related rights and obligations (if any).
Step 4. Within 10 days from the date of expiration of the notice of land recovery period, the Chairman of the Provincial/Commune People's Committee is responsible for issuing a decision to recover land and directing the implementation of the land recovery decision.
In case the land user does not comply, the land recovery decision will be enforced.
Specificating the order of steps for reclaiming violating land in the Handbook helps unify the implementation from the commune level to the provincial level, limiting confusion or lack of synchronization when applied. At the same time, this is an important basis for protecting the legitimate rights of the people, while strictly handling violations of land law.
