VietNamNet Bridge – Many people in HCM City applying for a new certificate of land-use rights and ownership of housing and associated assets on the land (commonly called red books) have not received certificates on time as the city's land-use right registration office is overloaded with work.

Illustrative image -- File photo

T (not his real name), for example, has applied for a new red book for his new house in Go Vap District's Ward 9. The Go Vap District branch of the city's land-use rights registration office promised to return the book on September 17, but he has yet to receive it, according to a report in Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

"I have visited the Go Vap District People's Committee about 10 times and have not received a new red book," he said.

Under new regulations, the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment is the only office with the authority to grant new red books since July 1.

Documents applying for new red books are firstly submitted to the city's land-use right registration office branches, which used to be district-level land-use right registration offices.

The delay in granting red books is caused by the high number of applications in the city's 24 districts - about 300 a day. They all have to be transferred to the city's land-use right registration office for a check before the Department of Natural Resources and Environment grants new red books.

Pham Ngoc Lien, director of the department's land-use right registration office, said that district branches have to check application documents before they transfer the documents to the city's land-use right registration office.

The city's land-use registration office has to check the documents again, thus lengthening the period.

To solve the delay, the city's registration office has added more staff to check documents and has encouraged people to register changes of ownership in existing red books and not register for new red books.

District people's committees now have the authority to approve changes in existing red books. But they cannot grant new red books.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment has increased the number of deputy directors who sign and approve new red books from two to three people.

The municipal People's Committee has instructed departments and agencies to ask the Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to allow district-level People's Committees to grant new red books again, as they were allowed to do before July 1.

Le Thanh Khuyen, head of the Ministry's Land Management Department, said the ministry was aware of the problems associated with the one-tier land-use right registration office in HCM City.

The model is part of administrative reform, which aimed to create favourable conditions for people and enterprises. It is also part of the Land Law 2013, he said.

Dao Trung Chinh, deputy head of the Land Management Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said: "We are researching HCM City's petition about authorising districts to grant new red books."

Provinces and cities nationwide plan to complete online data about land ownership by 2020, which would allow the public to check data online, he said.

VNS