The amendments and supplements to the Law on Notarization 2024 focus on certain provisions related to district-level administrative units, provisions on decentralization and devolution in state management of notarization, provisions on the notarial database, provisions relating to transactions subject to notarization, and the use of data in place of paper documents in notarial request dossiers.
Nine groups of transactions subject to mandatory notarization
Regarding the amendments and supplements to the provisions related to transactions subject to notarization, the drafting authority has revised and supplemented in the direction of adding provisions on transactions subject to notarization. Transactions subject to notarization include:
(1) Contracts for transfer, gifting, mortgage, or capital contribution involving land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land, except contracts for lease or sublease of land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land, and contracts for conversion of agricultural land use rights; contracts for transfer or capital contribution involving land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land, or assets attached to land where one or more parties to the transaction are real estate business organizations;
(2) Written agreements of co-users of land use rights consenting to contribute land use rights to an enterprise;
(3) Contracts for sale, hire-purchase, gifting, exchange, capital contribution, or mortgage of residential houses, except cases where organizations gift gratitude houses, charity houses, or great unity houses; sale or hire-purchase of residential houses that are public assets; sale or hire-purchase of residential houses where one party is an organization, including: social housing, housing for the people’s armed forces, housing serving resettlement; capital contribution by residential houses where one party is an organization; lease, borrow, stay over, or authorization for management of residential houses;
(4) Documents for gifting real property, except cases eligible for registration under law; contracts for transfer of real estate business contracts; contracts for sale or hire-purchase of residential houses, construction works, or constructed floor areas in construction works where the parties to the transaction are individuals;
(5) Documents relating to inheritance of land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land; written consent of land users agreeing to the construction of works; documents on inheritance of residential houses;
(6) Documents on the appointment of a guardian;
(7) Wills of persons with physical limitations or persons who are illiterate;
(8) Documents recording the spouses’ agreement on the matrimonial property regime before marriage; documents amending or supplementing the contents of the spouses’ agreement on the matrimonial property regime;
(9) Documents authorizing the settlement of judgment enforcement related to assets when the judgment debtor leaves the country.
Amendments and supplements to provisions on notarization procedures
The draft also amends and supplements the provisions on notarization procedures in the direction of using data in place of paper documents in notarial request dossiers.
Accordingly, if a notarial practice organization has obtained the information of the documents in the notarial request dossier from the National Database on Population, the National Database on Land, or other databases as prescribed by law, the person requesting notarization is not required to submit such documents but must pay data access fees as prescribed by law for the notarial practice organization to retrieve the data.
Data in the National Database on Population, the National Database on Land, and other databases must ensure accuracy, completeness, cleanliness, real-time availability, consistency, and shared use.
Where a notary relies on such data to perform notarization but the data are not secure, complete, or timely, the notary shall not be held responsible for the notarized document.
In his concluding remarks at the working session, Deputy Minister Phan Chi Hieu requested the drafting authority to continue reviewing transactions that are subject to mandatory notarization and those that are not.
The Deputy Minister also provided specific comments on reviewing and reducing transactions subject to mandatory notarization, shifting from mandatory notarization to voluntary notarization, and shifting from notarization to certification.
He also emphasized the need to amend and supplement provisions related to the notarial database as well as notarization procedures and processes.
