The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has just sent a document to the Ho Chi Minh City Land Registration Office and its branches to rectify the inspection of the current status of houses and construction works when handling procedures for registering changes in land.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said it has received a lot of information reflecting that some branches of the land registration office still check the status when handling the registration procedures for changes in houses and construction works attached to land that have been certified for ownership on the red book. This is an additional procedure, not in accordance with the administrative reform policy and not in accordance with regulations, causing inconvenience to organizations and individuals.

Therefore, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment requests the Land Registration Office and branches of the land registration office in districts, towns and Thu Duc City to comply with regulations when handling registration files for changes in houses and construction works attached to land that have been certified for ownership on the red book.

This unit explained that Clause 5, Article 224 of the current Land Law stipulates: The agency handling administrative procedures on land is responsible for implementing the correct authority and time as prescribed by law; it is not responsible for the contents of documents and papers in the dossier that have been previously approved, appraised, ratified or resolved by other competent authorities.

Decree No. 101/2024 of the Government also stipulates: For properties that are houses and construction works attached to land that have been certified for ownership on the issued certificate, when handling the procedure for registration of changes, the land registration office or branch of the land registration office shall carry out the registration based on the information about the property on the issued certificate, except in cases where people or businesses request to register changes to the property. The property owner is legally responsible for the transaction if the property has changed compared to the issued certificate.

The agency receiving the dossier and the agency handling the procedures shall only not receive the dossier or stop handling the procedures for land registration and property attached to land and return the dossier to the person requesting registration, except for the case of first-time land registration without issuing a red book when receiving requests to stop implementation or a request to resolve a land dispute.

Decree No. 101/2024 also does not stipulate that the land registration office branch conducts status checks when handling change registration procedures.

In addition, Decision No. 17/2024 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on the regulations for coordinating the management of construction order in the area has determined that the responsibility for managing construction order falls under the authority of the Department of Construction, the People's Committees at the district level, and the People's Committees at the commune level. The responsibility for inspecting and detecting violations of construction order belongs to the cadres, civil servants, and inspectors assigned to manage construction order.

Thus, according to the above regulations, for properties that are houses and construction works attached to land that have been certified for ownership on the issued red book, the Land Registration Office and its branches will handle registration change applications based on information about the property on the issued red book (except in cases where people request to register changes to the property).

The verification of the current status of houses and construction works that are illegally constructed or unlicensed is not specified in the procedures for registration of changes and is not part of the functions and duties of the land registration office.

Not accepting applications or stopping the processing of land registration procedures, assets attached to land and returning applications to people if there are construction violations will be carried out when requested by competent authorities and must comply with the provisions of Decree 101/2024 of the Government.