A family in Nam Sach almost lost their home because they fell into the trap of "black credit"

Land suddenly sold

From June 2020 to March 2021, Ms. Vuong Thi Cham (42 years old), the daughter of Ms. Do Thi Tram (80 years old), borrowed money from Mr. Mai Xuan Quang (38 years old, in Quang Trung ward, Hai Duong city) many times to build a house and spend. Ms. Cham borrowed money from Mr. Quang at an interest rate agreed upon by both parties, the total amount was over 100 million VND.

On June 25, 2020, Ms. Tram signed a power of attorney contract for Mr. Quang to carry out legal procedures related to her 315 m2 land plot, including management, use, transfer, donation, lease, lending, mortgage, etc. Ms. Tram and her daughter said that the purpose of signing the power of attorney contract was to ask Mr. Quang to carry out the procedures to transfer land use rights from Ms. Tram to Ms. Cham and to gain Mr. Quang's trust in lending Ms. Cham money. According to Ms. Cham, after paying a total of 130 million VND, she still owes Mr. Quang 34 million VND.

After that, Ms. Cham tried to meet him many times to pay Mr. Quang the remaining 34 million VND, but Mr. Quang did not meet her. She and her son also urged her many times to do the procedures to transfer the land title, but Mr. Quang kept delaying and did not answer. Ms. Cham and her son went to the notary office to ask and found out that Ms. Tram's land had been transferred to someone else by Mr. Quang. Too surprised, Ms. Tram went to meet Mr. Quang to ask, and he said that she had sold the land to him for 650 million VND. Seeing that Mr. Quang wanted to appropriate the property, Ms. Tram filed a criminal complaint to the Investigation Police Agency of Hai Duong City Police to clarify Mr. Quang's actions.

On October 14, 2022, the Investigation Police Agency of Hai Duong City Police decided not to prosecute the criminal case. Ms. Tram filed a lawsuit against the case with the People's Court of Hai Duong City.

Claim the land

In January 2024, the Hai Duong City People's Court brought the civil case to trial. During the process of resolving the case and at the trial, the first-instance trial panel clarified whether Ms. Tram actually sold her land to Mr. Quang for 650 million VND or not. At the trial, Mr. Quang could not provide the original (only a photocopy) of the land sale documents between him and Ms. Tram.

The Trial Panel assessed that Ms. Tram's trust in authorizing Mr. Quang to transfer Ms. Tram's land use rights to Ms. Cham as a security measure to borrow money from Mr. Quang to pay off the house construction debt was objectively true. Because in reality, after signing the authorization contract, Ms. Tram and her children still lived here and had no other place to live. After Ms. Tram signed the authorization contract, Ms. Cham continued to pay Mr. Quang's debt and when she went to court, Ms. Cham still owed 34 million VND. Ms. Cham herself tried to meet him many times to pay off the debt but Mr. Quang avoided accepting the money. Because Mr. Quang did not accept the money, Ms. Cham found out that Mr. Quang had transferred Ms. Tram's land use rights to someone else. Based on the above, the Trial Panel considered that Mr. Quang's statement that Ms. Tram sold the land to him and that he had paid all the money to Ms. Tram was unfounded. Because if there was actually a sale of land and payment, there is no reason why Mr. Quang would not accept Ms. Cham's money and there is no reason why Mr. Quang would still let Ms. Tram and her children live on that land area...

Based on the above assessment, Hai Duong City People's Court determined that Ms. Tram signed a power of attorney contract for Mr. Quang to conceal the loan transaction between Ms. Cham and Mr. Quang, so the power of attorney contract between Ms. Tram and Mr. Quang was invalid due to forgery from the time of signing.

Hai Duong City People's Court has accepted Ms. Tram's lawsuit; declared the authorization contract between Ms. Tram and Mr. Quang signed on June 25, 2020 and the land use rights transfer contract signed on April 9, 2021 between Mr. Quang and 2 other people (the contract in which Mr. Quang sold Ms. Tram's land to others) invalid. The Court ordered Mr. Quang to be responsible for returning 750 million VND to the 2 people who bought Ms. Tram's land plot. The 315 m2 land plot in Uong Ha village, Minh Tan commune is under Ms. Tram's legal use; accepted Ms. Cham's voluntary action, and ordered Ms. Cham to pay Mr. Quang the remaining 34 million VND...

After the first instance trial, Mr. Quang filed an appeal. At the end of June, when the Provincial People's Court opened the appeal trial, Mr. Quang withdrew his appeal. The first instance verdict officially took effect. After nearly two long years of pursuing the case, Ms. Tram and her children were able to claim their family's land use rights.

Regarding the above incident, Hai Duong Electronic Newspaper published an article on April 23, 2022, titled “Risk of losing land and house due to authorization contracts.” The above incident shows that everyone must be alert, learn about legal regulations, and carefully review the content of documents and transaction contracts before signing to avoid legal risks.