How to handle cases of land purchase and sale disputes arising from handwritten papers

Phap Tri Law Company Limited answers: The purchase and sale, transfer of land use rights is a transaction related to a valuable asset. According to the provisions of law, when transferring land use rights, the parties must make a notarized or certified contract, after which, the buyer shall carry out procedures for registration of changes (transfer of ownership) at the land registration agency.

However, in reality, for a long time, there have been many cases of buying and selling land with handwritten papers, even in some cases, only holding a purchase and sale paper and the red book of the old owner or land plots without red books.

To remove this obstacle, land law has stipulated administrative procedures to resolve cases of buying and selling land by handwritten papers, helping people to complete legal procedures without necessarily having to sue in court.

These regulations are reflected in Clause 5, Article 137 of the 2024 Land Law, Article 42 of Decree 101/2024/ND-CP and are further guided in Decree 151/2025/ND-CP.

Case 1: Land owner has a Certificate

If the purchase and sale only has a handwritten paper and a red book of the old owner, the buyer can submit a change registration dossier to the land registration agency to carry out name transfer procedures.

In this case, it is not mandatory to return to sign a notarized contract with the old owner, especially when the old owner does not cooperate. The land registration agency will receive the dossier and proceed with the steps according to regulations.

In addition, there are also cases where the two parties have signed a full notarized contract, the buyer has paid the money but the seller does not deliver the red book. At that time, the buyer can still submit the notarized contract to register for changes.

Functional agencies will publicly list according to regulations. If no disputes arise, state agencies can cancel the old certificate and issue a new certificate to the buyer.

Thus, if the land has a red book and there is no dispute, the handling procedure is usually relatively simple.

Case 2: Land owner does not have a Certificate

If the land plot does not have a certificate, the law divides it into many different cases.

In the first case, if the old owner does not have papers on land use rights according to Article 137 of the Land Law, the functional agency only considers handwritten purchase and sale transactions that occurred before July 1, 2014. The buyer needs to prove the stable management and use of land and the origin of the transfer.

In the second case, if the old owner has land use right papers according to Article 137 of the Land Law but the purchase and sale is only done with handwritten papers or the purchase and sale papers are lost, the functional agency can still consider recognizing the transaction made before August 1, 2024.

The third case is that the buyer receives the transfer from the landlord's heirs. At that time, the heirs need to carry out the inheritance procedure first, then continue to carry out the procedure for transferring ownership to the buyer.

In fact, not every case requires lawsuits. The current Land Law has designed an administrative roadmap to legalize handwritten purchase and sale transactions, helping people complete name transfer procedures if disputes do not arise. Lawsuits in court only occur when someone disputes land use rights or functional agencies list dossiers but someone objects.

If it is to be resolved in court, this process may take many years through the first instance and appellate levels, and in some cases, the transaction may even be declared invalid.

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