Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh - Director of Bright Legal Law Firm - said that this is probably the question he had to correct the most during the consulting process: Paying the fine does not mean that the project can legally exist.
According to the provisions of Article 4 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP (forms of penalties and remedial measures), accompanied by monetary penalties specified in Articles 8, 9, 10 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP, there is always a mandatory remedial measure - requiring the restoration of the original state of the land before the violation, that is, forcing the dismantling of illegal construction works to restore the current state of agricultural land.
These are two independent sanctions, accompanying each other, not'choose one of the two' or'submit this and exempt that'. Many people misunderstand that just paying the fine is enough to feel secure, considering the fine as a form of'fee' to legalize the project, this is a completely wrong concept", Lawyer Tuan Anh emphasized.
According to Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh, the case that helps the project not to be demolished is that the land user completes the procedures to apply for land use purpose conversion and is approved by a competent authority, or is eligible for consideration for a Certificate under Clause 3, Article 139 of the 2024 Land Law (as analyzed in Questions 1 and 5). At that time, the land has officially become legal residential land, the new demolition obligation is considered not to be applied (because the project has been consistent with the new land use purpose).
If the land plot does not meet the conditions for changing the purpose (not in accordance with planning, prohibited from conversion...), even if the fine has been paid, the violator is still obliged to self-dismantle the construction within the time limit stated in the sanctioning decision. If they do not voluntarily comply, the competent state agency will organize forced dismantling according to Article 86 and Article 87 of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations in 2012 (amended and supplemented in 2020), and all coercive costs must be paid by the violator himself.
Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh said that the list of legal grounds is cited and supplemented:
- 2024 Land Law: Clause 27 Article 3 (definement of land destruction); Clause 1 Article 31 (obligation to use land for the right purpose); Article 116 (basis for allowing land use purpose conversion); Clause 1 Article 121 (cases of purpose conversion must be permitted); Article 122 (conditions for allowing purpose conversion, including clause 1 on rice/forest land that needs a resolution of the Provincial People's Council); Article 138 (issuance of GCN for land without papers, without violations); Clause 3 Article 139 (resolution of land with violations of misuse before July 1, 2014); Article 227 (order and procedures for land use purpose conversion).
- Decree 123/2024/ND-CP: Article 3 (validity period of sanction 2 years); Article 4 (form of sanction, measures to remedy consequences); clause 2, Article 5 (fine level for organizations 2 times higher than for individuals); clause 4, Article 3 (no sanction for violations before October 15, 1993); Article 8 (illegal transfer of rice land); Article 9 (transfer of special-use/protection/illegal production forest land); Article 10 (transfer of other agricultural land - garden land, perennial crops - illegally); Article 14 (land destruction).
- Resolution 254/2025/QH15: point c, clause 2, Article 10 (collection rate of 30%/50% of land use fees when converting garden, pond, and agricultural land in the same plot with residential land to residential land).
- Decree 50/2026/ND-CP: Article 12 (transfer and retroactive handling of land use fees for cases of purpose conversion from August 1, 2024 to before January 1, 2026).
- Law on Handling of Administrative Violations 2012 (amended and supplemented in 2020): point a, clause 1, Article 6 (penalty period of 2 years for violations related to land); Articles 86, 87 (coercive enforcement of sanctioning decisions).
