Claiming 2,400 m2 of ‘sold’ land

The dispute over property recovery between the plaintiff – Thien Loc Co., Ltd (Thien Loc Company) and the defendant, Mr. Hau and his wife, 47 years old, living in Ninh Kieu district, is expected to be brought to trial by the People’s Court of Can Tho City. under appellate proceedings in early May.

According to the first-instance judgment, on April 26, 2014, the director of Thien Loc Co., Ltd. signed a contract to transfer the right to use 2,400 m2 of land, in the new urban area south of Can Tho river, Cai Rang district (by this company). as an investor) for Mr. Hau and his wife for one billion VND. The contract is notarized and the payment takes place on the same day. The company assigned the red book of the above land plot to Mr. Hau and his wife.

In addition, the two sides also agreed, Thien Loc Company will be able to redeem the land plot within 6 months. During this time, the company must pay Mr. Hau 5% interest per month on the contract value. If the time limit is over, the company does not redeem the land, it must issue an invoice for the buyer to carry out the procedures for transferring the name.

At the end of the agreed period, Thien Loc Company did not redeem the land, so Mr. Hau and his wife requested to provide an invoice for them to complete the registration procedures for the transfer of land use rights. Thien Loc Company believes that the business is being coerced by the tax authority by announcing that “all invoices are not valid for use” so it cannot provide it to the buyer.

The two parties then agreed to extend the redemption period by three months. The company will support Mr. Hau 50 million per month. However, at the end of this period, Thien Loc Company still did not redeem the “sold” land.

After many years, the dispute between the two sides remains unresolved. In early 2021, Thien Loc Company sued, asking the People’s Court of Cai Rang district to declare the contract signed with Mr. Hau and his wife invalid.

According to the plaintiff, the transfer of the right to use a land plot of more than 2,400 m2 is a fake way (the parties do it to hide another contract), in fact it is just a property loan contract, so the court should ask the court to force the husband and wife. Mr. Hau returned. The Company agrees to pay the defendant the principal debt plus interest (at the rate of 20% per annum) from April 2014 to January 2021.

Disagreeing, Hau and his wife filed a counterclaim, asking the court to force Thien Loc Company to continue to perform the contract and provide value-added invoices to him and his wife to complete the registration procedures for transferring rights. using land.

According to the price appraisal results of the People’s Court of Cai Rang district in October 2021, the disputed land plot according to state regulations is VND 9.6 billion, while the market price is VND 24 billion.

In January, during the first-instance trial of the People’s Court of Cai Rang district, a representative of Can Tho City Tax Department (who has related rights and obligations) said that Thien Loc Company’s failure to issue invoices was the subjective fault of the business. . This company is being forced to stop using invoices but is still allowed to issue separate invoices to pay for necessary work and must immediately pay at least 18% of revenue on invoices to be used into the State budget.

After studying the file, the People’s Court of Cai Rang district denied the lawsuit claim of Thien Loc Company, accepting all counterclaims of the defendant. According to the trial panel, at the time of establishing the transaction, the parties had full civil act capacity and voluntarily signed the contract; The purpose and content are consistent with the law, not against social ethics. The parties admit that in addition to the transfer contract, they also signed a minutes of agreement related to the redemption of the property, so this is a “conditional civil transaction”.

The contract signed by the parties is legal in both content and form, so it is not void. The plaintiff also failed to provide evidence that the transaction was fake, so there was no basis to accept the petition.

However, the People’s Procuracy of the same level then protested against the entire judgment, requesting the Can Tho City People’s Court to appeal in the direction of correcting the entire first-instance judgment, declaring this contract invalid.

According to the VKS, the two sides signed an agreement on April 26, 2014 with content to redeem the property and set an interest rate of 5% per month, so in essence, this is a loan transaction. The establishment of a contract to transfer land use rights on the same day is fake, to hide the loan of a billion dong. Therefore, the contract to transfer the land plot of 2,400 m2 for one billion dong is void according to the provisions of Article 129 of the 2005 Civil Code…

“At the court, the plaintiff’s representative said that the value of the land at the time the two parties signed the contract was about 10 billion VND, but the first-instance court did not consider the price agreed by the parties in the contract, as well as the actual price. to evaluate and determine the nature of the transaction is not comprehensive…”, the protest stated.

Kowloon