The uncle and his wife are farmers and live on this land. During the difficult life, the uncle always wanted to change the land use purpose of the current house (in fact, the land is forest land but surrounded by houses, only the uncle's house has no land for living).

Mr. Cua requested the competent authority to guide his uncle to change the land use purpose (his uncle does not have any residential land assets).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment answers this issue as follows:

Clause 2, Article 138 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates:

"2. Households and individuals using land from December 18, 1980 to before October 15, 1993, and are now confirmed by the People's Committee of the commune where the land is located to have no disputes, shall be granted a Certificate of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land as follows:

a) For land plots with houses, dwelling houses and works serving life, if the area of the land plot is equal to or larger than the residential land recognition limit prescribed in Clause 5, Article 141 of this Law, the residential land area recognized is equal to the residential land recognition limit and no land use fee must be paid.

In cases where the land area with houses, dwelling houses and works serving life is larger than the residential land recognition limit prescribed in this point, the residential land area is recognized according to the actual area of housing, housing and works serving that life; the land user must pay land use fees for the area exceeding the limit for recognition of residential land in this point;

b) For a land plot with housing, housing and works serving that life, if the area of the land plot is smaller than the limit for recognition of residential land prescribed in Clause 5, Article 141 of this Law, the residential land area is determined to be the entire area of that land plot and no land use fees must be paid;

c) For a land plot used for non-agricultural production, business, trade and service purposes, land for non-agricultural production establishments, commercial and service land shall be recognized according to the provisions in Point c, Clause 1 of this Article;

d) For the remaining land area after being determined according to the provisions in Point a and Point c of this Clause, it shall be determined according to the current land use status.

In case the current land use status is non-agricultural land that is not residential land, it shall be recognized according to the provisions at point c of this clause.

In case the current land use status is agricultural land, it will be recognized in the form of the State allocating land without collecting land use fees; if the land user has a need to recognize the land for non-agricultural purposes that are consistent with the district-level land use planning or general planning or zoning planning or construction planning or rural planning, it will be recognized for that purpose and must pay land use fees according to the provisions of law".

According to the above provisions, your uncle is granted a Certificate of land use rights and ownership of attached assets based on the provisions of Clause 2, Article 138 of the 2024 Land Law if he is using land without documents on land use rights without violating the law on land, and is not in the case of land being allocated without proper authority.