1. What is Red Book?

A certificate of land use right and ownership of houses and other land-attached assets is a legal document for the State to certify the land use right, ownership of houses and other property attached to land, land use rights, house ownership rights and ownership of other land-attached assets (According to Clause 16, Article 3 of Land Law 2013 - hereinafter referred to as Red Book). 

Thus, Red Book is the word that people often use to call the Certificate of land use rights, houses and other properties attached to the land ownership based on the color of the certificate.

Although the word Red Book has no legal value, the author still uses it to easily access to people which makes them understand in the process of applying for a Certificate.

2. Conditions for being granted The Red book

According to Land Law 2013, Decree 43/2014 / ND-CP and Decree 01/2017 / ND-CP, the conditions for being grantied Red Book include: Land with a certificate of land use rights, land without a certificate and land  trenched being granted without authority (the land which is used illegally before July 1st  2014 stably and long-termly ).

2.1. Issuance of Red Book when having documents on LURC

Having documents on land use right is divided into the following cases: Case 1: Household, having a document on land use right (Does not bear another person's name)

According to Clause 1 Article 100 Land of 2013, households and individuals that are using land stably and havving one of the following papers will be granted a Red Book and not have to pay land use levy.

- Papers on the right to use land before October 15th, 1993, issued by a competent authority during the implementation of the land policy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam and the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

- A temporary certificate of land use right granted by a competent state agency or named in the land register, cadastral book before October 15, 1993 (the effective date of Land Law 1993 );

- Lawful papers on inheritance or donation of land use right or property on land; papers on handing over fhouses of gratitude, group houses of attached to land;

- Papers on transfer of land use right, purchase and sale of houses attached to residential land before October 15th1993, certified by the commune-level People's Committee as being used before October 15th 1993;

- Papers on liquidation and valuation of houses attached to residential land; documents for purchase of state-owned houses as prescribed by law;

- Papers on land use right issued by a competent authority under the old regime to land users such as: land certificate; Real estate buying and selling documents…

- Other types of papers established before October 15, 1993, such as: the land index book, land surveyting books made before December 18th, 1980; Minutes of approval of the Commune-level Land Registration Council confirming that the person is lawfully using the land.

Case 2: There are papers, but the papers are written in someone else's name

According to Clause 2, Article 100 of Land Law  2013, households and individuals are granted a Red Book and are not required to pay land use fees if:

+ Currently using land with one of the above papers in which another person's name is written, together with a document on the transfer of the land use right signed by the relevant parties (due to purchase, sale, donation but not yet transferred name)

+ But before July 1, 2014, the procedure for transferring the land use right has not been carried out.

+ If there is no dispute, the Book will be issued.

Case 3: Households and individuals are allowed to use land according to court judgments or decisions, conciliation results...

- Households and individuals may use land according to judgments or decisions of the People's Courts,

- Judgment execution decisions of judgment enforcement agencies,

- A document recognizing the successful conciliation result,

- The decision on settlement of disputes, complaints and denunciations about land by competent state agencies has been enforced.

Note: When applying for a Red Book, if you have not fulfilled your financial obligations, you must pay money.

Case 4: Households and individuals currently use land allocated or leased by the State from October 15, 1993 to July 1, 2014 which have not yet been granted a Book will be granted a Book; in case financial obligations have not been fulfilled, they must be done.

2.2. Issuing Red Book when there is no LURC document

According to Article 101 of the 2013 Land Law, households and individuals who do not have documents on land use rights are still granted red books. Specifically:

Case 1: No need to pay land use levy Households and individuals that do not have documents on land use rights are granted a Red Book and are not required to pay land use levy when fully meeting the following 03 conditions:

- Households and individuals currently using land before July 1, 2014;

- Having a permanent household registration in the locality and directly engaged in agricultural, forestry, aquaculture, and salt production in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, areas with special socio-economic conditions. special difficulties;

- Being certified by the People's Committee of the commune where the land is located is a stable and dispute-free land user.

Households and individuals in this case shall make an application for certification of stable land use status and apply for certification at the commune-level People's Committee. The certification will be attached to the documents when applying for the Red Book.

Case 2: Land use levy must be paid

Households and individuals are granted a Red Book and must pay land use levy when fully meeting the following 03 conditions:

- Currently using land without documents on LURC but the land has been used stably since before July 1, 2004;

- The land being used lawfully in compare with the land law.

- Being certified by the commune-level People's Committee that the land is undisputed and in accordance with the planning.

3. Dossier to apply for a Certificate for the first time

Depending on whether the land user has papers or not, the application file for the Red Book also has differences, specifically:

3.1. Dossier to apply for Red Book when having documents

When wishing to apply for a Red Book, the first thing that a requesting household or individual needs to prepare is a set of documents, including the following applications and papers:

1 - An application for registration and issuance of a red book according to Form No. 04a/DK;

2 - One of the LURC documents specified in Article 100 of the 2013 Land Law and Article 18 of Decree 43/2014/ND-CP (submit a copy, present the original for comparison).

(These documents can be found in Section 2.1. Issuance of the Red Book when having the above documents on LURC)

3 - Papers on assets attached to land such as:

+ Certificate of house ownership, certificate of non-residential construction works,

+ Certificate of ownership of planted production forests,

+ Certificate of ownership of perennial plants (if there is a property and a certificate of ownership is required).

In case of registration of ownership of a house or construction work, a plan of the house or construction work is required (unless there is a suitable plan in the document on ownership of the house or construction work). suitable to the current status of houses and built works);

4 - Documents to fulfill financial obligations (such as receipts of tax payment, land use levy...); papers related to the exemption or reduction of financial obligations on land and properties attached to land (if any);

5 - Other papers such as: household registration book, identity card.

Note:

- For overseas Vietnamese who are eligible for and are eligible to own houses and use land in Vietnam, they need to have proofs as prescribed.

- In case a land user has registered land and now needs to be granted a Red Book, he/she only has to submit an application for grant of a Red Book, Form No. 04a/DK.

3.2. Dossier to apply for Red Book without papers

According to Clause 1, Article 8 of Circular 24/2014/TT-BTNMT, households and individuals need to prepare documents as follows:

- An application for registration and issuance of a red book according to Form No. 04a/DK;

- Copies of documents for fulfillment of financial obligations such as receipts of tax payment, land use levy...; papers related to the exemption or reduction of financial obligations on land and properties attached to land (if any);

In addition, when submitting the application, you must present your identity card.

Note:

Although it is undocumented land, if there are houses or other construction works on undocumented land and households or individuals wish to certify ownership of such houses or constructions, they must pay add papers on ownership (write information about houses and other construction works in the Red Book), specifically:

+ Copy of one of the papers on house ownership;

+ Copy of one of the papers on ownership of the construction work.

4. Procedures for issuance of Red Book for the first time

According to Article 70 Decree 43/2014/ND-CP, the procedure for the issuance of the Red Book for the first time is carried out through the following steps:

Step 1. Submit application

- Households and individuals submit dossiers at branches of land registration offices in districts, towns and centrally- run city.

- Households and individuals submit dossiers to commune-level People's Committees if there is demand.

Note: Any locality that has established the One-Stop-shop Department must submit the application at the One-Stop-shop Department.

Step 2: Receive and process

Case 1: If the profile is incomplete

- If the application is incomplete or invalid, it must notify and guide the applicant to supplement the application (within 03 working days).

Case 2: If the profile is enough

- The civil servant receiving the dossier is responsible for recording all information in the receiving book;

- Writing and giving the Receipt Form to the submitter;

Handling requests for issuance of Books for households and individuals:

- The land registration office will notify the payable amounts to households and individuals that request the issuance of books.

- Households and individuals are obliged to pay the prescribed amounts such as: Certificate issuance fee, land use fee (if any). When the payment is completed, keep receipts and vouchers to confirm the fulfillment of financial obligations.

Step 3. Return the result

- The branch of the Land Registration Office will hand over the Red Book to the grantee who has submitted documents of fulfillment of financial obligations or send the Red Book to the Commune People's Committee to hand over the documents to households and individuals at the commune level.

* Settlement time

According to Clause 40, Article 2 of Decree No. 01/2017/ND-CP, the time limit for issuance of Red Book is prescribed as follows:

- Within 30 days since the date of receipt of valid dossiers; within 40 days for mountainous, deep-lying, remote areas and islands with difficult socio-economic conditions; areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions.

- The time limit for issuance of the Red Book does not include the following time periods:

+ Holidays and public holidays as prescribed by law;

+ Time to receive dossiers at commune;

+ Time to fulfill financial obligations of land users;

+ Time to consider and handle the case that breaks the land law;

+ Time to solicit assessment.

5. Procedures for transferring the name of the Red Book

The procedure for transferring the name of the red book is applied in cases of transfer or donation of land use rights or houses

Step 1. Depositing (applied when transferring the name of the Red Book in case of transfer)

In order to facilitate the transfer process, in fact, the transferors will usually make a deposit contract before making a transfer contract at a notary public.

Step 2. Making a contract and notarize the contract

The contract for transfer of land use right is one of the contracts that must be notarized. Therefore, the transferors need to establish a transfer contract and go to a notary organization to notarize the contract (or to an organization that makes the contract and notarizes the transfer contract).

According to Clause 1, Article 40 of the Law on Notarization 2014, the documents that need to be prepared include:

- Notarization request form;

- Draft contract, transaction (the parties can prepare or ask the notary to draft the transfer contract)

- Identity papers of both parties (ID card or passport);

- Certificate of marital status if single or Marriage registration certificate if any parties are married. 

Step 3. Declaring and fulfilling financial obligations

When declaring financial obligations, the two parties need to prepare a set of documents as follows:

- Registration fee declaration;

- Personal income tax declaration;

- Notarized transfer contract;

- Certificate of land ownership,

- Copy of ID card, household registration book of both parties.

In which, the personal income tax and registration fee must be paid as follows:

- Personal income tax payable is 2% of the transfer price.

- Registration fee for real estate is 0.5% of the transfer price.
Step 4. Submit the application for transfering ownership at the branch of the Land Registration Office in the district, town, provincial town or city of the province.

The documents include:

- Application form;

- Household book, ID card of the buyer;

- Certificate of LURC;

- Notarized transfer contract...

When submitting the application, the buyer also has to pay a number of other fees such as: cadastral fee; Appraisal fee; Fees for issuance of Red Book….

Implementation: Within 10 working days (according to Decree 01/2017/ND-CP).