Procedures for issuing an Apartment Pink Book

Continuing on the series of Legal issues regarding Apartments, CNC introduces the article “Procedures for issuing a Certificate of Land Rights Use and Other Assets Attached to the Land for Apartments” (“The procedures for issuing an Apartment Pink Book”)

With priority given to simplicity, convenience, and comprehensiveness, this article has been prepared and presented with infographics and tables with reader friendly descriptions, and we hope that this article proves helpful in your process of applying for an Apartment Pink Book.

For a better understanding of relevant specialized vocabulary, please visit this article: “APARTMENTS – MAJOR LEGAL PROBLEMS”

The procedures to issue an Apartment Pink Book are provided below:

Overview – procedures for issuing an Apartment Pink Book

Entities eligible to initiate application for an Apartment Pink Book

Only the individual(s) and/or organization(s) that meet the criteria to own an apartment in Vietnam may apply for an Apartment Pink Book, including The Employer of an Apartment Construction Project (“Employer”), and the purchaser of the apartment (“Purchaser”).

In accordance with the law, The Employer is obligated to initiate the application for the Pink Book on behalf of the Purchaser. However, this regulation does not limit the Purchaser’s rights thereby allowing the Purchaser to either leave it to the Employer or initiate the procedures themselves.

Regarding unsold apartments in the project, the Employer may conduct the procedures to apply for the Pink Book to certify the Employer’s ownership over said apartments prior to selling them to potential purchasers.

The procedures, dossier components, and the receiving authorities may vary in correspondence to which entity performs the procedures to apply for the Pink Book. Therefore, the first step to be taken in order to proceed correctly is to identify which group of entities the Pink Book applicant belongs to.

Last but not least, if the Purchaser were to be a foreign individual, organization, or overseas Vietnamese, there are legal requirements needing to be satisfied, specifically:

Foreign individual(s): Having legally entered Vietnam (foreign passport is still in effect and verified by the entry approval seal of Vietnam Immigration Department and does not belong to the group of entities that have diplomatic privileges and immunity)

Foreign organization(s): including foreign-invested enterprises, branches, representative office of foreign enterprises, foreign investment funds, and foreign bank branches operating in Vietnam. The above-mentioned entities must be in possession of an Investment Registration Certificate and/or Enterprise Registration Certificate and ONLY use the apartment for the purpose of accommodating deployed personnel, and NOT for leasing, office location, and other purposes

Overseas Vietnamese: In possession of either, a valid Vietnam passport or a valid foreign passport and pertinent documents verifying their Vietnamese nationality. (Valid in this case means still in effect and verified by the entry approval seal of the Vietnam Immigration Department)

For other conditions on the amount of apartments, location, notice procedures, etc., please visit this article: Vietnam laws on foreign ownership of property – key changes

Receiving Authorities

The receiving authorities for the Pink Book application dossier are organizations that are accorded the ability to directly conduct administrative procedures such as receiving and processing dossiers or delegated to do so organizations.

Where to apply for Apartment’s Pink Book?

Receiving Authorities for Apartment’s Pink Book

For the purpose of applying for an Apartment Pink Book, the entity concerned must prepare all of the required documents and submit them to the receiving authorities, including:

Land registry office:

The Land Registry Office under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as branches of the Land Registry Office at the district, town, city levels within each provice.

Land use rights office:

Province-level land use rights offices and district-level land use rights offices.

Commune-level People’s Committee:

People’s Committee within communes, towns, and wards

However, it must be noted that the application for an Apartment Pink Book must be submitted to the appropriate authority depending on (1) the entity that initiates and completes the application, and (2) the location of the apartment.

Below is a detailed infographic of receiving authorities for each entity. Accordingly, the receiving authorities are either Land registry offices or land use rights offices (if there aren’t any land registry offices located in that ward). In cases of Vietnamese individuals, if the concerned person desires to submit the dossier at the commune-level People’s Committee, the People’s Committee would then undertake the receiving and processing of the application.

Dossier Components

Depending on the entity conducting the procedures, the dossier components may vary. Conversely, there is also the matter of reapplication for an Apartment Pink Book to be considered when preparing the required documents. In other words, before preparing the dossier, there are two questions that must be answered:

Firstly: Is the applying entity the Employer or the Purchaser?
Secondly: Has any Pink Book been previously issued for the apartment in question?

Depending on the responses, the dossier entity could be either the:

Employer

Quy trình chủ đầu tư thực hiện xin cấp sổ hồng cho chung cư

In an effort to obtain the Apartment Pink Book, the Employer must perform the above-mentioned steps. Specifically, after completing the project, the employer must report the results via submission of the dossier mentioned in Step 1 to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment so that said organization can investigate the situation, as well as the transfer conditions of the project. After receiving notice from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment that all conditions are met, the Employer will proceed with Step 2, at this stage, there are two possible situations:

Whenever an apartment has already been sold to the Purchaser, the Employer can either submit the dossier or provide the Purchaser with the dossier so that he/she may conduct the procedure by himself/herself.
Whenever an apartment has not been sold, the Employer may submit the dossier composed of the documents as mentioned in Step 2 to certify their ownership over the apartment.

Purchaser

A Pink Book’s first issue means the Purchaser conducts the procedures to apply for a Pink Book for an apartment purchased from either the Employer or other Purchasers but no Application for a Pink Book for the apartment in question has been submitted beforehand.

Registration of changes, transfer of Pink Book pertains to the Purchaser conducting procedures to make changes to the issued Pink Book regarding the registered owner’s information. This process is also commonly known as the transfer of a Pink Book. These procedures are carried out whenever a Pink Book has already been issued for the concerned apartment and the purchaser wants to (1) update the owner’s information in the issued Pink Book and (2) request for the Pink Book to be made anew.

Things to consider when preparing the dossier for a Pink Book application

Amount

The amount of dossiers required to apply for an Apartment Pink Book, in accordance with the current legal regulations, is one. However, there may be internal changes depending on the locations. Therefore, in order to meet all of the requirements pertaining to the dossier, it is recommended that multiple copies are prepared or contact with the receiving authorities for guidance is made.

Original Copy/ Duplicated Copy

Aside from the dossiers that require the original copy, all other required documents are submitted as:

Notarized duplicated copy/copies
Non-notarized duplicated copy/copies (for comparison with the original copy, which is made at the receiving authorities office)
Original copy/copies (only submitted whenever there are 2 or more copies)

Identification Documents

In addition to the above-mentioned documents, the applying entity should consider the following documents when performing administrative procedures at any competent authorities’ offices:

Delegation letter/delegation contract (whenever delegating the procedures conducting role to other entities)
Identity card/passport of the applying individual
- Domestic Individuals: identity card/passport of the Purchaser;
- Overseas Vietnamese: identity card/passport with Vietnamese nationality and/or documents verifying Vietnamese nationality;
- Domestic Enterprises: Enterprise Registration Certificate/Enterprise Establishment Determination;
- Foreign-invested Enterprises: Investment Registration Certificate and Enterprise Registration Certificate

Processing Duration

No more than 15-business days since reception of complete qualified dossier, not including the financial obligations fulfillment time. In cases of mountainous, remote, rural, or economically and socially incapacitated regions, and islands, the duration should be expected to be 25-business days.

Cost

The cost of applying for an Apartment Pink Book is categorized into two groups:

Financial Obligations: Including registration fee, land tax, and income tax (from the transfer of the real estate). The competent authorities will determine and notify the applying entity of the financial obligations upon the submission of the dossier. Clients are invited to discover more about this process in the article: “Red Book, Pink Book Application Fees”.

Miscellaneous fees: Including notary fees, land registry office/land use rights office/people’s committee’s dossier evaluation fees.

Conclusion

The demand for an Apartment Pink Book, as well as other residential buildings has been increasing since not only Vietnamese citizens but also individuals and organizations from foreign countries are showing interest in the subject matter. Aware of this fact, CNC has prepared this article in a concerted effort to provide a detailed and comprehensive guide on the procedures to apply for an Apartment Pink Book to aid our clients in their process of applying for said certification.

For more information

If there are any doubts remaining or requests to be made that relevant to the subject matter, clients may contact us via the following information:

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan | Partner

T: (+84-28) 6276 9900

E: ngan.nguyen@cnccounsel.com

Tran Duc Tri | Associate