Case 1: Land not eligible for transfer
Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 45 of the 2024 Land Law, the conditions for transferring land use rights are as follows:
Land users are allowed to exercise the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, donate land use rights; mortgage, contribute capital using land use rights when meeting the following conditions:
- Having a Certificate of land use rights or a Certificate of house ownership rights and land use rights or a Certificate of land use rights, house ownership rights and other assets attached to land or a Certificate of land use rights and ownership rights of assets attached to land, except for cases of inheritance of land use rights, conversion of agricultural land when consolidating land, exchanging plots, donating land use rights to the State, communities and cases specified in Clause 7, Article 124 and Point a, Clause 4, Article 127 of the 2024 Land Law;
- Land without disputes or disputes that have been resolved by competent state agencies, judgments, decisions of the Court, decisions or judgments of the Arbitration that have come into legal effect;
- Land use rights are not subject to seizure or other measures to ensure enforcement of judgments in accordance with the provisions of the law on civil judgment enforcement;
- Within the land use term;
- Land use rights are not subject to temporary emergency measures as prescribed by law.
- Conditions in Clauses 3 and 5, Article 45 of the 2024 Land Law
Thus, if the land is transferred by handwritten document but does not meet one of the above conditions (especially without a Certificate), the transaction may be declared invalid by the Court, and the transferor has the right to reclaim the land after refunding the money to the buyer.
Case 2: Selling land without the consent of household members using the land
Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 27 of the 2024 Land Law, the group of land users with shared land use rights has the following rights and obligations:
- The group of land users, including household members and individuals, has the same rights and obligations as the rights and obligations of individuals as prescribed in this Law.
In case the group of land users has members who are economic organizations, it has the same rights and obligations as the rights and obligations of economic organizations as prescribed in the 2024 Land Law;
- In case the group of land users has land use rights divided into parts for each member of the group, if each member of the group wants to exercise the right to their land use rights, they must register changes or separate plots according to regulations, carry out procedures for granting Certificates of land use rights, ownership rights of assets attached to land and exercise the rights and obligations of land users according to the provisions of the 2024 Land Law.
In case the land use rights of a group of land users cannot be divided into parts, the members shall jointly implement or authorize the representative to exercise the rights and obligations of the group of land users.
Accordingly, if there is no consent of the members of the household using the land in a notarized or certified document and the household land is transferred to another person, the other member has the right to reclaim his/her land use rights.
Case 3: Husband or wife arbitrarily sells house and land that is common property
Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 35 of the Law on Marriage and Family 2014, the transfer or sale of real estate which is the common property of a husband and wife must have the written consent of both parties.
If one person arbitrarily carries out the transfer without the consent of the other person, the other party has the right to request the Court to declare the transaction invalid to protect their legal rights.
Case 4: Reclaim land when the contract is not notarized or certified
Pursuant to Point a, Clause 3, Article 27 of the 2024 Land Law, the land use rights transfer contract must be notarized or certified according to the provisions of law. Thus, if the sale is only done with a handwritten document but not not notarized or certified, this transaction is not valid, except for the case specified in Clause 2, Article 129 of the 2015 Civil Code.
Specifically, if one party or the parties have not fulfilled at least two-thirds of the obligations in the contract, the transferor has the right to request the Court to declare the contract invalid to reclaim the land.
Conversely, if the land is eligible for transfer and the buyer has paid two-thirds of the value or more, it is not possible to request the Court to declare the transaction invalid just for violating the form to get the land back.
