Correcting errors in issuing "red books" to people

There are many limitations

In reality, among the complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections related to land, there are many cases that originate from limitations in the State management responsibility for granting land use right certificates, using houses and assets attached to land for the authorities at all levels. In many cases, citizens sued the authorities in court and lost, forcing them to revoke the decision to grant land use right certificates.

The Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee supervises at the Land Use Registration Office of Dien Chau district. Photo: Document

For example, in the case of Mr. Phan Van Trung (born in 1963) in Hamlet 7, Tang Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District, he filed a lawsuit against the administrative decision on the issuance of the Land Use Right Certificate by the People's Committee of Yen Thanh District. The High People's Court in Hanoi accepted the case and issued a judgment canceling the decision and act of granting the Land Use Right Certificate No. I 535042 dated October 20, 1996 by the People's Committee of Yen Thanh District to Mr. Phan Van Hien (Mr. Tuyen's younger brother) at plot 502 (map 299), map sheet No. 6 in Hamlet 6, Tang Thanh Commune, forcing the People's Committee of Yen Thanh District to perform its duties and public duties according to the provisions of law.

In 2018, the Legal Department (Provincial People's Council) established a monitoring team on the issuance of land use right certificates, house ownership rights and other assets attached to land in the province. Thereby, it has pointed out a number of shortcomings and limitations such as: the situation of issuing land use right certificates with errors that need to be corrected is still common.

There are still wrongly issued land use right certificates that must be revoked according to the provisions of Point d, Clause 2, Article 106, Land Law 2013. Besides, there are other errors such as the certificates of some households in Nghi An and Nghi Duc communes (Vinh City) in the land plot diagram section stating "the land plot is located within the research scope of Vinh - Cua Lo Boulevard, belonging to the Green Tree Industrial Park" which is not in accordance with the provisions of Circular 23/2014 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Land use rights certificate. Photo: Illustration

In Report No. 723/BC-UBND dated December 21, 2018 of the Provincial People's Committee on the results of implementing recommendations and proposals after supervision from the beginning of the 2016-2021 term to present, the Standing Committee and the Provincial People's Council Committees also stated: Through the inspection of the State management responsibility for natural resources and environment, including the granting of Certificates of land use rights, house ownership rights and assets attached to land to the People's Committees at district and commune levels in the province, it was found that: 12 inspected units all had violations.

The main violations include: Issuing land use right certificates without enough co-users; not opening a book to certify land use right transfer contracts; documents on agreement on division of inheritance and documents on acceptance of land use right inheritance are not in accordance with regulations; not storing land use right transfer records.

In some cases of inheritance, the procedure for document authentication is not guaranteed, and the list of heirs is not public. In addition, the confirmation of the origin, time and process of land use is not accurate: Not clarifying the origin of land allocation by the State, inheritance land allocation, land reclamation, donation, liquidation price, arbitrary land use, arbitrary change of purpose; determining the time of land use is not accurate through the time markers before December 18, 1980, before October 15, 1993, before July 1, 2004; before July 1, 2014 and the process of land use to determine the stable purpose of use as residential land.

People of Luu Son commune come to do procedures at the commune's one-stop shop. Photo: Document

Some localities issue certificates for public land areas (land plots formed after public works land) such as road traffic safety corridors, high-voltage power grid corridors, dike corridors; hydroelectric and railway corridors.

After discovering the violations, the inspection team requested the People's Committees of districts and communes to organize reviews, draw lessons, rectify and overcome the violations, especially the confirmation in the issuance of Land Use Right Certificates.

In 2018, inspection of 5 communes and wards in Vinh city discovered common errors such as carrying out procedures to establish records to issue land use right certificates to households.

Mr. Phan Duy Hung - Chief Inspector of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said: In 2017, the Department Inspectorate conducted an inspection of the application for Land Use Right Certificates at 5 commune-level People's Committees in Yen Thanh district. The results showed that there were still limitations such as: registration forms, land division forms, and change registration forms did not include the content of the receiving officer. There were some household records that did not include the date and signature of the household head. The commune's confirmed explanation of the area difference did not include the date, the transfer contract did not include the date, number...; the records did not include a record of the current status inspection...

In 2018, continued to inspect 5 communes and wards in Vinh city, all of which made common mistakes such as carrying out procedures to establish records for granting Land Use Right Certificates for households. Many records did not ensure the deadline, violating Clause 2, Article 22, Decision No. 49/2014/QD-UBND of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee; confirming records for granting Land Use Right Certificates without entering records in the record receipt book, not recording the date of receiving records in the application for granting Land Use Right Certificates...

What is the solution?

According to Mr. Thai Minh Tuan - Deputy Head of the Provincial Citizen Reception Committee, the reasons leading to the limitations and errors in granting Land Use Right Certificates are not following the correct procedures, not granting to the right subjects, not granting the right land origin... In addition to the limitations in land management over the periods, it is also due to the qualifications and capacity of the staff.

"There are cases where when people file a complaint, officials are subjective and do not review it. There are also cases where mistakes are discovered but for many reasons they ignore it, deliberately protect the mistake, do not correct the mistake, so when citizens sue in court, they lose and have to cancel the issued Land Use Rights Certificate." In addition, officials' awareness of policies and laws is still limited, incomplete and inconsistent. Meanwhile, policies and laws on land and mineral resources have changed but have not been able to grasp and adapt to the requirements in a timely manner... leading to errors in issuing certificates.

Mr. Thai Minh Tuan - Deputy Head of the Provincial Citizen Reception Committee

To overcome this limitation, in addition to improving the effectiveness of State management in the land sector; focusing on arranging competent and responsible staff who have a good grasp of policies and laws to implement them correctly, relevant sectors need to strengthen the inspection of State management responsibilities on land, including the issuance of land use right certificates, house ownership rights and assets attached to land.

Officials of Nghi Duc commune (Vinh city) guide people to complete the application for land use right certificates. Photo: Khanh Ly

Besides, according to Mr. Thai Minh Tuan - Deputy Head of the Provincial Citizen Reception Committee: The process of issuing administrative decisions, performing administrative acts and resolving complaints and denunciations related to land in general, and the granting of Land Use Right Certificates in particular, often has errors, even violations of regulations, due to many different objective and subjective reasons.

Therefore, the Party Committee, the government, the relevant sectors and staff must be ready to re-evaluate the problem to correct mistakes and resolve it in a way that ends the case, not by resolving it beyond their authority or blaming it on “history” to avoid responsibility. This is also one of the lessons learned to limit and end the long-standing complaints and denunciations related to the land sector.