The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is seeking opinions on a draft legal document to eliminate notarization procedures and marital status confirmation in real estate transactions for cases with digitized data. This proposal has initially received the public support.

If the proposal gets approved, the real estate transaction process will consist of 5 steps. If the draft resolution is approved, it will be implemented nationwide from January 1, 2026.

P.K.P from Hiep Binh ward, HCMC, said she recently sold a condominium, and the longest procedural step during notarization was obtaining the certificate of marital status.

P shared that the buyer was a friend’s referral, so both parties handled the notarized sales contract themselves, without a broker.

After preparing documents such as the “pink book” (ownership certificate), citizen ID, and the certificate of marital status, P visited the notary office to sign the sales contract.

However, P and the buyer could not complete notarization due to issues with her marital‑status certificate. Specifically, the notary told her the “single” certificate had been issued two months earlier.

“I explained that this certificate is valid for six months, but the notary disagreed because they worried I might have married after it was issued. A few days later, the notary agreed to let us sign the contract, but I had to sign a commitment, stating that I was single,” P said.

If the requirement to submit the marital‑status certificate and to notarize real‑estate transfers is dropped, P believes it will be very convenient for citizens and save time, provided that the civil‑registry and population and land‑data systems are interlinked and accurate to prevent forgery.

With many years’ experience notarizing property transactions, a notary from the D.T.P Notary Office (HCMC) said verifying the marital status of both parties takes a long time and introduces risk.

“There are cases where sellers declare single but are actually married, or separated but not officially divorced. If litigation occurs, the sale contract may be declared invalid, and the notary office must compensate damages,” he said, noting it would be convenient if this procedure is electronically authenticated.

Deposit contract signing procedure

Lawyer Do Thanh Lam from the HCMC Bar Association agreed that real estate transaction procedures and marital status confirmation can be implemented electronically. However, it will take time for preparation for personnel and technical infrastructure.

If this can be implemented, according to Lam, citizens would have to undergo fewer procedures and document submissions compared with the current practice. Then, people can sign contracts right at the land registration agency, making it more convenient to check house and land information, from legal status to transfer conditions.

“This is better than the current process, where the notary‐contract office differs from the ownership transfer registration office, leading to cases where the contract is notarized but the transfer is still blocked,” Lam said.

However, he noted that difficulties remain if the transfer registration office also performs notarization duties. If not enough staff are allocated, overload and insufficient capacity to serve citizens may result.

Moreover, the notarization can be done by professional notary organisations. There is a mechanism for them to take responsibility and compensate for mistakes. If a resolution on the abolishment of notarization requirement is implemented, these duties will revert to government agencies. 

Meanwhile, there is no clear regulation yet on responsibility and compensation when officials err, while houses and land are major assets of citizens.

“To implement the new idea, sufficient data on people's marital status from past to present is needed, because many transactions require verifying this status in a certain period, not just current status,” lawyer Lam suggested.

Lawyer Nguyen Dang Tu (HCMC Bar Association) said the key to success is for management agencies to prepare a robust database system, ensuring synchronised and accurate data.

Another important issue that needs to be addressed is the deposit agreement which should be be an added as a step of the property buying and selling.

In addition, Tu noted that some issues remain for Vietnamese nationals residing abroad, without citizenship, yet they inherit property rights. Under current regulations, they hold land‑use rights but cannot stand as certificate holders. In such situations, how would a transfer be processed when they do not have an account in the VNeID electronic identification system?

Anh Phuong