Is there a penalty for buying land without a red book?

Reply:Clause 1, Article 45 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates the conditions for transferring land use rights as follows:

Article 45. Conditions for exercising the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, donate land use rights; mortgage, contribute capital using land use rights; receive transfer or donation of land use rights

1. Land users are entitled to exercise the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, donate land use rights; mortgage, and contribute capital using land use rights when meeting the following conditions:

a) Have a Certificate of land use rights or a Certificate of house ownership and land use rights or a Certificate of land use rights, house ownership and other assets attached to land or a Certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land, except for cases of inheritance of land use rights, conversion of agricultural land when consolidating land, exchanging plots, donating land use rights to the State, residential communities and cases specified in Clause 7, Article 124 and Point a, Clause 4, Article 127 of this Law;

b) Land is not in dispute or the dispute has been resolved by a competent state agency, a court judgment or decision, or an arbitration decision or award that has come into legal effect;

c) Land use rights are not subject to seizure or other measures to ensure enforcement of judgments according to the provisions of the law on civil judgment enforcement;

d) During the land use period;

d) Land use rights are not subject to temporary emergency measures as prescribed by law.

Thus, one of the conditions for the land use right owner to exercise the right to transfer land use rights is that the land plot must have a certificate (except in the case ofInheriting land use rights, converting agricultural land when consolidating land, exchanging plots, donating land use rights to the State, residential communities and cases specified in Clause 7, Article 124 and Point a, Clause 4, Article 127 of the 2024 Land Law).

In case of violation, the person transferring land use rights without a certificate may be punished according to the provisions of Point c, Clause 3, Article 17 of Decree 123/2024/ND-CP, specifically as follows:

Article 17. Transferring, leasing, subleasing, and mortgaging land use rights without meeting the prescribed conditions

[…]

3. The acts of transferring, leasing, subleasing, inheriting, donating land use rights; mortgaging, contributing capital using land use rights that do not satisfy one of the conditions prescribed in Clause 1, Article 45 of the Land Law shall be subject to the following forms and levels of penalties:

[…]

c) A fine of between VND 30,000,000 and VND 50,000,000 shall be imposed for the act of transferring or contributing capital using land use rights.

So, the information you heard is not entirely accurate, because:

-The party penalized in a land use rights transfer transaction when the land plot does not have a Certificate is the transferor (ie the seller) and not the transferee (ie the buyer - you);

-Along with the penalty, if the land plot meets the conditions, it will still be granted a normal certificate.