People reflected that the family bought a part of the land in 1999, located in the area that had been granted a Certificate from December 30, 1993. When transacting, the buyer was handed over a notarized photocopy of the certificate, the purchase and sale contract certified by land administration officials and local authorities at that time.
Since receiving the transfer, the family has still lived stably and paid land use tax annually.
However, according to reports, the original land plot book has been lost over time, while the person named on the initial certificate has also passed away. When applying for a Certificate of Land Use Rights for the purchased land, the family is required to have the original certificate of the old land plot.
Answering this content, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment said that this is a specific case, under the jurisdiction of the locality to resolve. The consideration must be based on archived records and specific regulations issued by the locality to organize the implementation of the Land Law, so the Ministry does not have a basis for direct conclusions for each case.
However, this agency clearly stated that current land law has regulations on issuing Certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land for cases where land use rights have been transferred but procedures for transfer have not been carried out, according to Article 42 of Decree 101/2024/ND-CP dated July 29, 2024.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment cited Decree 49/2026/ND-CP dated January 31, 2026 of the Government, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of Resolution 254/2025/QH15.
Accordingly, Articles 14 and 15 of this decree have decentralized authority to provincial-level People's Committees in the field of land; specifically, in cases where commune-level agencies or competent persons recognize land use rights, the Chairman of the commune-level People's Committee is granted a certificate of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land. The decree also decentralizes the regulation of administrative procedures on land.
From the above guidance, it can be seen that in the case of buying a part of a land plot but no longer having the original book, people cannot just rely on a notarized photocopy to assume that they will naturally be granted a certificate. The dossier will have to be reviewed by the competent authority in the locality based on archived documents and regulations applied at the place where the land is located for consideration and resolution.
