Office Space For Lease In District 7 Ho Chi Minh: Is The Office Lease Contract Invalid When Not Notarized?

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Is The Office Lease Contract Invalid When Not Notarized?

Currently, many businesses hesitate to notarize office rental contracts because it takes a lot of time. So the lease of the non-notarized office will be void?

Is the office lease contract invalid when not notarized?

Ideally, we should make an office lease and notarized to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of both parties. To better understand this issue, let’s learn the following provisions of the law:

Case 1: Office rental contract owned by an individual

1. Article 492 of the 2005 Civil Code stipulates:

“A house lease contract must be made in writing. If the lease term is six months or more, it must be notarized or authenticated and registered, unless otherwise provided by law”. This means:
A house lease contract in which one party is an individual, including: Renting a house for residential purposes or leasing houses for other purposes (including renting houses for offices) with a term of 06 months or more must have merit certified or authenticated and must be registered.

2. In Clause 2, Article 122 of the Law on Housing stipulates:

“For cases where charity houses are donated; purchase, sale, lease-purchase of state-owned houses; purchase, sale, lease-purchase of social housing, resettlement housing; capital contribution with housing with one party being an organization; For rent, lease, permission for residence, or authorization to manage housing, the contract is not required to be notarized or authenticated, unless so requested by the parties. For the transactions specified in this Clause, the effective time of the contract is agreed upon by the parties; In case the parties have no agreement, the effective time of the contract is the time of signing the contract ”.

3. At the same time in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 83 of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents No. 17/2008 / QH12 dated June 3, 2008 of the National Assembly, there are provisions on the application of legal documents:

“In case the legal documents have different victuals on the same issue, the higher legal document will apply.
In case legal documents promulgated by the same agency contain different provisions on the same issue, the provisions of the later promulgated document shall apply. ”
Thus, from July 1, 2015, the house lease or house lease contract for other purposes meeting the provisions of Clause 2, Article 122 of the Law on Housing 2014 is not required to be notarized or authenticated.

4. The date of the 2015 Civil Code takes effect from January 1, 2017

Civil Code 2015 was born to replace Civil Code 2005 completely abolished the provisions on mandatory notarization and authentication for housing lease contracts.
Therefore, from January 1, 2017, based on the provisions of the Housing Law 2014, the Civil Code 2015 for house lease contracts, House lease contracts for other purposes (House rental not required to be notarized or authenticated. This has been agreed in the relevant legal documents and does not cause any inconsistencies as before the 2015 Civil Code comes into effect.

Case 2: Office lease contract with a legal entity

Case 2: Office lease contract with a legal entity
In the case of renting an office of a legal entity that has the function of leasing office, the office co-lease is not required to be notarized or authenticated. Because both the lessee and the lessor have full legal status, meet the requirements to issue invoices as required, and are governed by relevant laws in business activities.
Thus, according to the law, individuals who rent a house to do an office or rent an office from an office leasing unit are not required to notarize or authenticate the office lease contract. However, in the case of renting a private house as an office, we should notarize to improve the legality and obligations of the lessor.