Buy Farmland in Vietnam

Thanks Drutter. I will have a will drawn up for the, "just in case" scenario and hope I never need to use it.

According to my wife, this is the process. We've been married for 5 years and I trust her but you can take the information for whatever you think it is worth. I know she means well, and is trying to help but I understand you don't know that. Anyway, we recently purchased a small plot of land ourselves and this is what she has told me: 
1.    Required documents needed for pink/red book:
-    ID from both buyer and seller.
-    Pink/red book with seller's name on it.
-    Marital status of both seller and buyer (this must be notarized by a local committee).
-    Purchasing contract/agreement created by Notarization Legal Office (must have names of seller, purchaser and notarization witness).
•    If any of these document is missing the purchase cannot be processed.
2.    Only Vietnamese citizens and Vietnamese Companies are allowed to own land in Vietnam – so be sure you are legally related (married). 
3.    The foreigners name will not be written in the pink/red book BUT his/her legal right will be protected by a Legal Inheritance Certificate (LIC) with the owner listed in the book:  i.e. marriage certificate (MC) with spouse or Capitol Contribution Agreement (CCA) with Vietnamese company.
•    Be sure that you have either the MC or the CCA before purchasing the land. With this you will not lose the land – no matter who dies first. 
4.    Once one of the owners dies:
-    Without LIC: 50% goes to the survivor and 50% goes to the dead spouse's immediate family (son, daughter, parents etc.)
-    With LIC: at least 50% belongs to the survivor. The other 50% will go to whoever the dead spouse leaves it to.
•    If you are a shareholder (CCA) then your percentage will depend on the contribution you made with your company.
5.    Without your signature no one can sell that land legally. With regard to all required documents for the pink/red book during the purchasing process to the next owner unless your spouse's relatives can prove to the committee at her location that she is single. Obviously, that would be impossible as it is clearly documented on the MC that you were married before the land was purchased.

Drutter - Current history: In Vietnam for 13 years, am a retired Canadian, bought the rural land and house about four years ago in wife's name. Legally married for 2 years. We were content to live together and had done for four years but law changes as you know, changed everything. So our life hasn't changed much except we are complying fully with the law. I don't care to have the land in my name, I only want to protect my wife and myself from her family.

I do believe wrote:

Drutter - Current history: In Vietnam for 13 years, am a retired Canadian, bought the rural land and house about four years ago in wife's name. Legally married for 2 years. We were content to live together and had done for four years but law changes as you know, changed everything. So our life hasn't changed much except we are complying fully with the law. I don't care to have the land in my name, I only want to protect my wife and myself from her family.

ah. specifically i agree w @druter w his point 5.

i was in sim postion, but daughter had to get my signature for sale because i was listed in pink book

so the catch here is that you purchased land/house before marriage? ah.

best solution (i think)  is see a decent solicitor. maybe you can do something like sell it to yourself (now you are married), or set up one-person LLC and sell to that (and then leave to her in will)?

The best way for you both to be protected from family on both sides is for both of you to simple obtain  Legal Inheritance Certificates.
Land purchase before or after marriage doesn't matter as long as you each have the LIC. The courts are going to look at the fact that you lived together for a long time. You were living together and each contributed to the purchased of the land and you are married now. No matter what half the land is yours by marriage. To assure 100% ownership in case of death you will each need an LIC indicating you wish to leave your share to your surviving spouse.
When you go to obtain your LIC's you will each have to sign them. They will be typed up in Vietnamese but there will be an official interpreter there to explain everything to you before you sign anything.

drutter wrote:

The best way for you both to be protected from family on both sides is for both of you to simple obtain  Legal Inheritance Certificates.
Land

Drutter is giving solid advice here. Your 50% is protected under marriage law. I concur, if you want the other half protected, then a will is the solution. Regardless of what you do or don't do, your wife or her family, cannot sell the property without your approval ie signature and finger print. Foreigners married to Vietnamese inherit similar land use rights as locals. If your wife passes before you and you have a will in place, you will be the few foreigners that own the land outright. However, it will be converted to leasehold, and your 50 year leasehold begins.

this seems to hv gotten bigger than Ben Hur, and is all terribly confusing now for me anyway.

pls correct or add (cogently pls) to the below specific summary

for @dobelieve, there seems to be two questions -
- selling it
- dying

because buying the land predated marriage, i am assuming that @dobelieve is NOT listed in pink book, therefore land can be unilaterally sold by wife (whereas if @dobelieve was in pink book, this canot (legally) happen

if wife dies (most unfortunately) prior to @dobelive, he gets 50% (the details of what happens then are gone into elsewhere i believe and i do not cover here)

considering all the confusing and vexed questions that have been raised above, it seems to be to be now a excellengt solution for the wife to sell land to a one person LLC (with @dobelieve as direcvtyor/shareholder) (obviously there wil some costs involved to set up LLC if it does not exist already and for the sale/transfer of land)

having done that, @dobelieve can make a will leaving the land to his wife, if she does not predecease him.

so it seems to me, this solution would make everything very clear-cut legally and simple for everyone to understand

of course the only losers are the family who would possibly not be happy although they would still hv a entitlement as long as she does not predecease @dobelieve.

bug64 wrote:

because buying the land predated marriage, i am assuming that @dobelieve is NOT listed in pink book, therefore land can be unilaterally sold by wife (whereas if @dobelieve was in pink book, this canot (legally) happen

considering all the confusing and vexed questions that have been raised above, it seems to be to be now a excellengt solution for the wife to sell land to a one person LLC (with @dobelieve as direcvtyor/shareholder) (obviously there wil some costs involved to set up LLC if it does not exist already and for the sale/transfer of land)

.

This is confusing as it is filled with inaccuracies.

Foreigners cannot be listed on red or pink books for land. They can be in pink books for apartment and villas that are built after 2015. If the foreigner is married to a local, marriage laws protects him and the marriage certificate is provided as evidence.

If he's not married and bought a land with a local, they can sell it from under his nose without him knowing or objecting to the sale, and no recourse.

There's  no such thing as single person llc as land can only be held by an individual, married couple, and registered companies which will require capital contribution.

@idobelieve - just get a will notarized and you will be protected.

CoderX10 wrote:

bug64 wrote:

because buying the land predated marriage, i am assuming that @dobelieve is NOT listed in pink book, therefore land can be unilaterally sold by wife (whereas if @dobelieve was in pink book, this canot (legally) happen

considering all the confusing and vexed questions that have been raised above, it seems to be to be now a excellengt solution for the wife to sell land to a one person LLC (with @dobelieve as direcvtyor/shareholder) (obviously there wil some costs involved to set up LLC if it does not exist already and for the sale/transfer of land)

.

This is confusing as it is filled with inaccuracies.

Foreigners cannot be listed on red or pink books for land. They can be in pink books for apartment and villas that are built after 2015. If the foreigner is married to a local, marriage laws protects him and the marriage certificate is provided as evidence.

If he's not married and bought a land with a local, they can sell it from under his nose without him knowing or objecting to the sale, and no recourse.

There's  no such thing as single person llc as land can only be held by an individual, married couple, and registered companies which will require capital contribution.

@idobelieve - just get a will notarized and you will be protected
.

to quote "this is ... filled with inaccuracies'

1. OF COURSE there is a 'single person (or one) person LLC! duh! what do you think a "registeted company" is or can be. i have one, and many foreigners have one, for this purpose, and for business, (sort of a 'twofer')

2. and i know from personal experience that foreigners are listed in pink/red book with Vietnamese wife IF they hv marriage certificate AT THE TIME.

3. "if he's not married and bought land with a local, they can sell..." was in fact one of the very points i mentioned, and two, in any case, that statement is all an error anyway - the whole point is that if you are "not married", and "he" is a foreigner, then we are all agreed that "he" CAN'T "buy land with a local" (leaving out separate entities such as LLCs etc) ...  the land is bought solely in the "local"s name which gives rise to the whole situation, so that whole statement is a nonsense.

4. "just get a will notarised and you will be protected".
really? how? they got married AFTER the land was purchased - that is the whole point. him making a will now doesn't absolutely nothing about that existing legal situation. there is/will be absolutely nothing in red book that mentions him at all (and nothing that can be unilaterally added post-marriage).