Is police registration obligatory for residents? Huge fines!!

George George
Greetings everyone!

Recently we've moved to an apartment in a newly-built tower building. The owners are a lovely couple, Vietnamese local citizens. They've bought this flat not long ago and I'm their first tenant. No wonder they aren't informed on the subject thoroughly enough, plus they don't speak English very well, which causes me loads of troubles. Fortunately, my wife speaks Vietnamese and they understand each other very well.

When we asked them if they registered us for the police, they were surprised by the fact that it's necessary. Of course, they answered they didn't. We went to the police office located in the same building and asked for a registration.

But the problem is that only a landlord can request for a resident's registration. That's what we were told in the police. Plus, they made us pay a fee for the late registration. My wife, a Vietnamese citizen, has to pay 400k dong while my bill is about 4mln!!! (I'm a foreigner) They allowed us to register within the next week though before paying the fee, so we need our landlord to get things done in time.

Has anyone experienced registration problems? I feel like being fleeced with such a ridiculously high fee price! Is it a normal thing to pay 4mln for a residence registration?
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George George
Loria, Is there a certain law I can refer to? What am I supposed to say to the police if they require a fine?

Our landlord really had no idea he had to register us. Anyway, he can't do so until he gets the pink book. We have just a few days left to get things done, but now it seems quite impossible...
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Mrs.Goldschmidt Mrs.Goldschmidt
Loria is right, it's a landlord's duty, not yours, as well as paying fines. He isn't allowed to rent out an apartment before preparing all the paperwork in the first place! And he must own the pink book, renting out a flat without it is against the law. But who cares? Landlords just trying to earn as much as possible without paying taxes that fall upon them after completing residence registration. It's not about laziness, they just don't want their income to get taxed.
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BillyMoore BillyMoore
When we first arrived in Vietnam and rented an apartment, I had to leave for an urgent business trip and my girlfriend was waiting for me at home. One night she called me full of fear saying that the police arrived in the middle of the night followed by one of our neighbours. She didn't understand a thing but in general, they wanted to know who we were and why we had no registration. I called our agent and he settled it somehow... Beware shady neighbours!!!

When we moved to another flat in another district, the police came with about 5 officers. I allowed only one to enter shutting the door in the face of the others. Showed him our documents and just asked him out of my flat saying that in case of problems I will come to their department in the morning. No need to slam my door at 2 am. And you know what? We've been living here for 2 years already and since then I haven't seen a single cop at my door))) Learn to defend yourselves, guys! In most cases being tough does work! lol
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Loria Loria
Most landlords do know about registration, they just don't wanna bother. While local citizens must register on their own, you are not required to do your registration personally. It's a landlords' duty and by the way, it's free. The landlord just needs to fill out an online form at hochiminh.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn. Many landlords just ignore it out of laziness or they just don't care. Well, it's not a surprise since it's being checked pretty rarely, no one bothers unless something goes wrong in your building.

George, I advise you to demand this huge fine deducted from the rental price. Good luck!
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R McKoy R McKoy
Wow sorry for those who experienced problems with the police... As for the registration regulations, they differ quite considerably depending on a particular district. I rent an apartment in D2 and I'm allowed to get the registration on my own, which I have done throughout 3 years. You know, VN law, in general, is kinda open to interpretation.
Regulations might differ from one district to another and even from different departments...!!
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Michael Michael
HBell, yes, registration is a must for all the tenants. But if you bought a property and got a pink book, I assume that the police will get informed about your residency.

The thing is, very few landlords are aware of this requirement. And what's even worse, the police tries to benefit from the whole situation, even when the procedure is done in time. When I rented a flat as a first tenant just like yourself, my landlord tried to get a registration for me, which is supposed to be done within 24 hours. They told him to wait for 3 days and still nobody bothered to get the registration done! I still need this temporary registration certificate. My guess is, police do cheat on people for stealing high fines.
George... sorry, man... Looks like you got into a huge and expensive trouble
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Zachary Zachary
Guys, you know what, even if residence registration isn't checked very often, you still might need it for your future tenancies and other documents. Every time I entered into a rental agreement, I always informed the landlord about the necessity of getting registration done. Even if they didn't know about it, they still had to deal with it since I always insisted.

You see, when you apply for residence visas in some countries, it's required to provide a residence proofs from all the places you lived in for 2-5 years, depending on a country. If you miss one, you might get into trouble... so better safe than sorry...
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HBell HBell
What's with this registration thing? Is it obligatory for everyone who rents an apartment? Never heard about it! I'm going to live in Binh Chanh and even bought a flat, do I still need to register as a foreigner?
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