(PLO)- The same type of work, the same content, but if the notary does it, it is called notarization, if the head of the justice department or the president of the commune does it, it is called authentication.
In Ho Chi Minh City, if you want to sell an old motorbike for a few million dong, you have to bring your spouse (if any) with CCCD, sleepwalk, marriage certificate or certificate of singleness… and then go with the buyer to notarize with multiple steps of sweat testing. Meanwhile, in many other provinces and cities, if you want to sell a multi-billion piece of land, you just need to go to the Commune People’s Committee to sign and stamp the contract!
This strange difference has existed for many years. Because of the arising due to the provisions of law, there is a distinction between notarization and authentication of contracts and transactions.
 |
| People come to carry out notarization procedures at a notary office in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: NGUYEN HIEN |
According to the Law on Notary 2014, notarization is the practice by a notary public (CCV) of a notarial practice organization certifying the authenticity and legality of a contract or other civil transaction in writing. That authenticity and legitimacy is demonstrated by CCV certifying that the participants in the contract, the transaction is completely voluntary, have the capacity for civil acts, the purpose and content of the contract, and the transaction is not infringing. According to the law, not contrary to social ethics, the signature or mark in the contract or transaction is the signature or fingerprint of the person participating in the contract or transaction.
According to Decree 23/2015, authentication is the certification by a competent authority such as the district-level judicial office and the commune-level People’s Committee of the time and place of contract signing and transaction; civil act capacity, voluntary will, signatures or fingerprints of the parties to the contract or transaction.
From allowing civil servants, district-level justice departments, and commune-level People’s Committees to do many of the same things (certificate contracts, real estate transactions, etc.), current regulations allow people to choose. or notarized or authenticated.
For example, according to the regulations on vehicle registration in 2014 of the Ministry of Public Security, the certificate of sale or donation of an individual’s car must be notarized or signed by the People’s Committee of the commune. By 2020, this ministry stipulates that an individual’s car sale, donation or donation certificate is notarized or authenticated. With the Law on Land 2013, contracts on transfer, donation, mortgage, and capital contribution with land use rights, land use rights and land-attached assets must be notarized or authenticated (except for real estate business). prescribed property). With the Law on Housing 2014, buying, selling, giving, exchanging, contributing capital, mortgaging houses, transferring commercial housing purchase and sale contracts must be notarized and authenticated.
Accordingly, although they all testify to the same types of work, the same contents, but if the CCV does it, it is called notarization, if the head of the justice department or the commune president does it, it is called authentication (?).
It is also worth noting that if many provinces across the country implement the above regulations, HCMC does not. Why? Although there is no official recognition of the level of “genuine” between notarized and authenticated documents, CCV is often trusted more in terms of professional level. Because according to the law, a CCV must be a person who has worked in the law for five years or more; graduated from a vocational training course or completed a vocational training course, and passed the test of notarized vocational training results.
Therefore, for a long time, in order to be professional and rational, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has decided to transfer a lot of contract authentication and transactions from the People’s Committees of districts and communes to notarial practice organizations. This is the reason why people in many provinces and cities can go to the commune-level People’s Committee to certify the car purchase and sale certificate, or for the whole contract, house and land transactions, which are complicated, so there are risks, disputes, etc., while In Ho Chi Minh City, people definitely have to go to a notary to increase legal safety.
It must have been very difficult in the past, only the state notary (how to call the state notary offices established by the provincial People’s Committee), so the new law must stipulate that anyone can do it and then cause problems. the above excuses. Now those objective obstacles are gone, especially with the law of demand and supply, so don’t worry about the lack of private notary (how to call notary offices established by CCVs).
So is it still necessary to keep two notarization and authentication systems in parallel for contracts and transactions, which wastes resources, leading to the situation that many assets are transferred many times at the same time without detection? because the database of notarization and authentication has no connection or connection?
Fortunately, the Ministry of Justice has now realized that the above-mentioned overlapping and duplication is not good, so it is planning to amend the Law on Notary 2014 in the direction of not allowing the district-level justice department and the commune-level People’s Committee to certify contracts and transactions. again. Therefore, let’s wait for the Law on Notary and many other laws to be amended to avoid ransom. In it, it is also hoped that the procedure for buying and selling used motorbikes for a small amount of money will be adjusted in a neat way so that people will be less burdened.
Lawyer NGUYEN THI THU TAM (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association)