Is police registration obligatory for residents? Huge fines!!

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?