The National Assembly recently passed the draft Amended Land Law (Land Law 2024) consisting of 16 chapters and 260 articles, with many new and important contents.
No land allocation or land lease to households
Among the key contents that have been presented for opinions, the provision on land use subjects has received much attention.
Currently, the 2013 Land Law stipulates that land users are entitled to land allocation, land lease, recognition of land use rights, and land use rights transfer in accordance with the provisions of this Law, including households and individuals in the country.
Among them, households using land are individuals who have marital, blood, nurturing relationships according to the provisions of legal regulations on marriage and family, living together and having the right to use land in common at the time of land allocation, land lease, recognition of land use rights, and land use rights transfer.
However, Article 4 of the Land Law 2024 (effective from January 1, 2025) no longer stipulates the subject “household”.
Specifically, households using land under the new law are individuals who have marital, blood, nurturing relationships according to the provisions of legal regulations on marriage and family, living together and having the right to use land in common at the time of land allocation, land lease, recognition of land use rights, and land use rights transfer before the effective date of this Law.
Previously, when formulating this policy, the reason given by the drafting agencies was that it is currently difficult to determine the members of the household, which affects the implementation of transactions regarding land use rights, as the land use rights certificates only state the name of the household head.
During the draft opinion phase, many experts also expressed their agreement. According to Master’s degree holder Ngo Gia Hoang (Ho Chi Minh City Law University), households using land only “exist for a short time in some areas and localities when the agricultural cooperative production model no longer exists. Cooperatives lease land to households in the village based on the average population, and on that basis, the land use rights of the household are recognized, or some localities have policies to expand the population based on land allocation to households according to population”. Therefore, so far, hardly anyone has established land use rights as a household – a subject that is defined rather vaguely and makes it difficult to determine rights among members according to the Land Law.
Land Law 2024 no longer stipulates the subject of households using land. Photo: PLO
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Handling land use rights with households that have been allocated land before
The exclusion of land users as households raises the question of what will happen to households that have been allocated land or leased land in the past?
In this regard, the Land Law 2024 still has provisions for adjustment. Specifically, the land use rights of households before January 1, 2025, will be handled as follows:
Households using land are determined in accordance with the provisions of land laws before the effective date of this Law and participate in legal relationships regarding land as a group of land users according to the provisions in Article 27 of this Law.
Households using land that have been allocated land, leased land, recognized land use rights, and received land use rights transfer before the effective date of this Law shall exercise rights and obligations as individuals using land.
When competent state agencies allocate land or lease land to households to implement approved compensation, assistance, and resettlement plans, they must specify the individuals who are members of the household with land use rights in the land allocation or land lease decision.
Households allocated land without land use fees, land allocated with land use fees, land leased before January 1, 2025, will continue to use the land for the remaining land use term. When the land use term expires, it will be extended by allocating land or leasing land to the individuals who are members of that household according to regulations.
NGUYEN QUI
