Proposal to eliminate notarization and single-status certification in real estate and automobile transactions

This is the content currently being developed by the Ministry of Public Security in a draft resolution to eliminate notarization procedures and certification of marital status in real estate and vehicle transactions for cases where data has been digitized and cleaned.

The draft resolution stipulates that there will be no requirement to submit a marital status certificate, no obligation to notarize contracts, and no need to present copies of personal documents if full identification and verification data already exist in national and specialized databases.

Instead, when conducting these transactions, individuals and state agencies will rely on data that has been collected, digitized, standardized, verified, and stored in national database systems for extraction and cross-checking. The data sources include:

Instead, when conducting these transactions, individuals and state agencies will rely on data that has been collected, digitized, standardized, verified, and stored in national database systems for extraction and cross-checking. The data sources include:

The National Population Database managed by the Ministry of Public Security (to verify identity, marital status, residence, and personal identification number of citizens); The electronic civil status database managed by the Ministry of Justice (data on marriage, divorce, birth, death registration, and marital status verification); The land database managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (data on land-use rights, ownership of houses, and assets attached to land); Databases on the registration and management of motor vehicles and specialized vehicles managed by the Ministry of Public Security (vehicle registration information, vehicle owners); VNeID and other high-level electronic authentication platforms, ensuring accuracy, legality, and resistance to information forgery.

For land sale and gift transactions, the Ministry of Public Security proposes the following fully online procedure:

- The buyer and the seller log in to the National Public Service Portal to declare contract information and request registration of land-use changes;

- Identity verification is conducted via VNeID Level 2, allowing the system to automatically cross-check and verify three types of information: the personal details of the transaction participants (from the National Population Database); marital status (from the electronic civil status database); and legal land-use rights (from the land database);

- The system provides an electronic contract template that can be digitally signed or printed for citizens to sign directly at the reception unit;

- The land registration authority receives the dossier;

- The results are returned either online or in person, according to the citizen’s choice.

Vehicle sale and gift transactions are carried out in the same manner.

Contracts, transaction dossiers, and processing logs are all stored electronically within the competent state agency’s system to support inspection, audit, dispute resolution, or violation handling. Electronically signed contracts have the same legal validity as notarized or certified contracts.

The Ministry of Public Security also proposes measures for cases where data is incomplete or unverified. Specifically, if the system has not updated marital status or property ownership information, the receiving authority may request citizens to provide relevant documents. Officials handling the procedures can also guide citizens to update civil status data, identification, or verify VNeID Level 2 as required, allowing them to use the streamlined procedure in future transactions.