Does Tenancy Agreement Need to Be Notarized?

Housing rental contracts are made and implemented by the lessee and the lessor, including the conditions and responsibilities of the two parties to the rental housing, the terms stated in the contract is right with the prior agreement of the two sides.

Article 492 the Civil Code 2005 provides for the form of lease agreement as follows: “Housing rental contract must be made in writing, if the lease term is six months or above, it must be notarized or certified and must register, unless other cases provided by law.”

Paragraph 2 of Article 122 – Housing Act 2014 provides that, in case the organization donated the house for charity purpose; purchase and lease purchase of houses under state ownership; purchase or lease purchase of social housing, housing for resettlement; housing capital contribution in which one party is organization; case of leasing, lending, allowing for temporary and authorized to manage the house are not required for notarization and authentication of contracts, unless the parties have needs.

In part a, point 28, section III of Resolution No. 52/NQ-CP on the administrative procedures in the field of judicial support, the attached Appendix have clearly stated that the regulation about mandatory notarization of some contracts, including housing lease contracts will be eliminated.

Thus, from the above regulations, we can see that currently, Vietnam law is not compulsory that tenancy agreement have to be notarized. The notarized or not is up to the parties involving in the contract. However, in order to ensure the interests of the parties in the contract, the parties could consider notarized housing lease contracts.

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