Can my spouse and I get title if we bought a house ?

Hi DMS Law office in Vietnam! My husband is a foreign national. We get married and live in Da Nang, Vietnam . We are planning to buy a separate house attached to land, which is not in a building project. Could you advise me if my husband is permited to have his name in the title certificate of the separate house ? 

Hi!

Conditions for foreigners to own house in Vietnam:

The foreign entities eligible for the homeownership in Vietnam if they buy, rent and purchase, receive, or inherit commercial housing including apartments and separate houses in the project for housing construction, except for areas under management relating to national defense and security as prescribed in regulations of the Government (Point b Clause 2 Article 159 Law on Housing No. 65/2014/QH13 dated November 25, 2014).

Foreign entities may only own houses (including apartments and detached houses) of commercial housing construction projects, except for those in areas having national defense and security requirements prescribed by Vietnam’s regulations of law (Clause 1 Article 75 Decree No. /2015/NĐ-CP dated 20 October 2015).

Common property of husband and wife

Common property of husband and wife includes property created by a spouse, incomes generated from labor, production and business activities, yields and profits arising from separate property and other lawful incomes in the marriage period; except the case prescribed in Clause 1, Article 40 of this Law; property jointly inherited by or given to both, and other property agreed upon by husband and wife as common property. The land use rights obtained by a spouse after marriage shall be common property of husband and wife, unless they are separately inherited by, or given to a spouse or are obtained through transactions made with separate property. Common property of husband and wife shall be under integrated common ownership and used to meet family needs and perform common obligations of husband and wife. When there is no ground to prove that a property in dispute between husband and wife is his/her separate property, such property shall be regarded as common property (Article 33 Law on Family and Marriage 52/2014/QH13 dated June 19, 2014).

Joint ownership between a husband and wife

Joint ownership between a husband and wife is divisible joint ownership. A husband and wife jointly create and develop their marital property through their efforts and have equal rights to possess, use and dispose of such property.  A husband and wife shall discuss, agree on or authorize each other in relation to the possession, use and disposal of the marital property. The marital property may be divided as agreed or pursuant to a decision of a court. If a husband and wife select the regulations on property under agreement as prescribed in law on marriage and families, the marital property shall apply those regulations (Article 213 The Civil Code No.91/2015/QH13 dated  November 24, 2015).

In your case, you get married with a foreigner and use money earned during the marriage to buy house in Vietnam, you shall have to conform to conditions for foreigners to buy and own house in Vietnam. Therefore, you and your husband are only permitted to jointly own apartment or detached house of commercial housing construction projects.  As Vietnamese law does not allow foreign nationals to own separate houses out of commercial housing construct projects, your couple is not permitted to have both names written in the title certificate of land, house and other assets affixed to land.

Related topics:

Making a written will ?

Heirs notwithstanding contents of wills in Vietnam

Common property of husband and wife in Vietnam

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Can my spouse and I get title if we bought a house ?