Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh - Director of Bright Legal Law Firm - said that if you start building houses on agricultural land and then apply for land use purpose conversion, it may not be approved.
According to Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh, in essence, "building first, applying for permission later" is still an act of violating the land law at the time of construction according to Articles 8, 9 or 10 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP (depending on the type of land), and people are administratively sanctioned, regardless of whether they are subsequently approved for legalization or not.
Whether the "legitimation request" is successful or not completely depends on the objective conditions of the land plot according to Article 116, Article 122 of the 2024 Land Law (or Clause 3, Article 139 of the 2024 Land Law if it is subject to violations of misuse before July 1, 2014):
- Is the land suitable for the planning and land use plan approved by the locality at the time of consideration or not;
- Is land classified as rice land, forest land that needs strict protection, land planned for projects, infrastructure works, safety corridors... or not;
- Is the land in dispute or not;
- Is the area exceeding the residential land allocation limit in the locality or not (the part exceeding the limit applies other financial mechanisms, which are often more disadvantageous).
If the conditions are met, the'legalization' process is actually the procedure for applying for a common land use purpose change, plus the obligation to comply with the decision to sanction administrative violations (if a record has been made) and complete the procedure for applying for a construction/completion permit (if the project requires a permit) so that the project is recorded as legal on the Certificate", Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh said.
Lawyer Tuan Anh further analyzed that if the land does not meet the conditions for changing purposes, even if people pay the fine fully, there is still no legal basis to "ask" for the project to exist - in this case, the risk of forced demolition is very high.
My advice is always to apply for a permit to change the land use purpose and apply for a construction permit before starting construction, instead of betting on the possibility of'legitimizing' later," Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh emphasized.
Lawyer Tran Tuan Anh noted that the handling for each specific case also depends on the origin, current status, type of land, time and process of land use, as well as the planning and legal conditions of each land plot. People need to specifically check dossiers, planning information and carry out procedures with competent state agencies before building or changing land use purposes.
