Rental Contract in Vietnam: Does a Foreigner's Lease Need Notarising? (2026)

A home lease in Vietnam doesn't have to be notarised or certified, unless the parties want it, whereas a sale, hire-purchase, gift, exchange, capital contribution or mortgage does, with exceptions. The lease itself must be in writing with the items the Housing Law lists, and it takes effect on the agreed date, or when signed if none is agreed.

Renting a home in Da Nang as a foreigner starts with one written contract, and the Housing Law decides what goes into it and whether it is notarised, so notarisation comes first below.

Trường hợp … thuê, mượn, ở nhờ, ủy quyền quản lý nhà ở thì không phải thực hiện công chứng, chứng thực hợp đồng, trừ trường hợp các bên có nhu cầu. Đối với giao dịch quy định tại khoản này thì thời điểm có hiệu lực của hợp đồng là do các bên thỏa thuận; trường hợp các bên không có thỏa thuận thì thời điểm có hiệu lực của hợp đồng là thời điểm ký kết hợp đồng.

For a lease, loan for use, letting-stay-for-free or authorised management, notarising or certifying the contract isn’t required, unless the parties want it. The contract’s effective date is as agreed, or the date it’s signed if the parties haven’t agreed one.

Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15, Điều 164 khoản 2

A sale, hire-purchase, gift, exchange, capital contribution or mortgage of housing has to be notarised or certified, except the cases in the clause above. A lease isn’t on that list.

If the parties do choose to notarise, the notary works in Vietnamese: where the person asking uses another spoken or written language, it must be translated into Vietnamese. If you ask for notarisation and aren’t fluent in Vietnamese, an interpreter is required.

What the Contract Must Contain

By law, a housing contract is as the parties agree, but it must be in writing and include:

• The full name of each individual, the name of each organisation, and the parties’ addresses.
• A description of the home and the land it sits on.
• The price, if the contract sets one, plus the payment term and method.
• When the home is handed over, and the lease term.
• Each side’s rights and obligations.
• The parties’ commitments, and any other agreements.
• The date the contract takes effect, and the date it’s signed.
• Both parties’ signatures and full names; an organisation also seals it (if it has a seal) and states the signer’s title.

The effective date and the handover time are two separate items. The landlord and tenant agree the lease term, the rent, and whether rent is paid periodically or in one payment; where the State regulates rent, both sides must follow that. A rental deposit is a separate matter: see Landlord Not Returning Your Deposit.

Signing a Valid Lease: Step by Step

1. Check you qualify to rent. A foreign tenant must belong to the class allowed to own housing, which includes a foreign individual permitted to enter Vietnam.
2. Add the contract’s contents. Draft the contract with the items above, taken from Article 163.
3. Decide on notarising it. A home lease doesn’t have to be notarised or certified; do it only if the parties want to.
4. Sign and set the effective date. The contract takes effect on the date you agree, or when you sign it if you don’t set one.
5. Register your stay. You declare temporary residence to the local police through the person who directly manages or runs the place you stay.

Who Can Lease a Home in Vietnam

Your landlord must meet the conditions on transacting parties that civil law sets. For a home being leased out, the law adds:

• It must ensure quality and safety for you, with full electricity, water-supply and drainage systems, and environmental hygiene, unless you both agree otherwise.
• It must still be within its ownership term, for housing under time-limited ownership.
• It must not be seized for a court judgment or a state agency’s administrative decision.
• It must not be under an emergency or preventive measure ordered by a court or a competent state agency.
• It must not already have a land-recovery decision, or a demolition or clearance notice from a competent agency.

As the tenant, you must meet those same civil-law conditions on transacting parties.

A home being leased doesn’t need an ownership certificate: the Housing Law doesn’t require one for a lease. Someone other than the owner can sign if the owner has authorised them, since a person can authorise another to set up and carry out civil transactions. What that representative does within the authority creates rights and obligations for the owner.

A tenant has the right to sublet if the landlord agrees. Housing leases follow the Civil Code, the Housing Law and other related law. If an ownership dispute leaves you unable to use the home stably, you can end the contract unilaterally and claim damages.

b) Nếu là cá nhân nước ngoài, người Việt Nam định cư ở nước ngoài thì phải thuộc đối tượng được sở hữu nhà ở tại Việt Nam theo quy định của Luật này và không bắt buộc phải có đăng ký cư trú tại nơi có nhà ở được giao dịch.

As a foreign individual, you must belong to the class of people allowed to own housing in Vietnam under this Law, and you aren’t required to hold residence registration where the home is in order to sign the lease.

Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15, Điều 161 khoản 2

That class includes a foreign individual permitted to enter Vietnam. Signing the lease is one thing; staying there still means declaring temporary residence through the person who manages the place.

When a Lease Ends

Public property housing is housing owned by the whole people, with the State as the owner’s representative. Official-duty housing is housing for people eligible to rent it while they hold a post or do the work the Law lists. A lease of housing that isn’t public property ends in any of these cases:

• The lease term expires; with no fixed term, it ends 90 days after the landlord notifies you it’s ending.
• Both sides agree to end it.
• The leased home no longer exists.
• The tenant, an individual, dies or is declared missing by a court, and no one was living with them at the time.
• A tenant organisation is dissolved, goes bankrupt, or stops operating.
• The home is severely damaged, at risk of collapse, or already subject to a land-recovery, clearance or demolition decision, or to compulsory state purchase or requisition. The landlord must then give at least 30 days’ written notice, unless it’s force majeure or otherwise agreed.
• One of the unilateral-termination cases below.

Ending the Lease Early

During the agreed lease term, your landlord can’t unilaterally end it and take back the home, except in the cases below.

If Your Landlord Ends It Early

• Public-property, social, armed-forces or industrial-park worker housing was leased out without authority, to an ineligible tenant, or without meeting housing-law conditions.
• You haven’t paid the agreed rent in full for 3 months or more, without a reason your contract agreed on.
• You use the home for a purpose other than what the contract agreed.
• You break through walls, extend, renovate or demolish the home on your own initiative.
• You convert, lend or sublet the home without the landlord’s consent.
• You disturb public order or environmental hygiene, seriously affecting neighbours. The landlord or the head of the local residential group, hamlet or village has already recorded it three times, and you haven’t fixed it.
• The landlord renovated the home with your agreement, one-third or less of the lease term is left, and you can’t agree the new rent. The landlord must then compensate you as the law provides.

If You End It Early

• Your landlord doesn’t repair the home when it’s severely damaged.
• Your landlord raises the rent unreasonably, or without the notice your contract agreed on.
• Your right to use the home is restricted because of a third party’s interest.
• An ownership dispute leaves you unable to use the home stably; you can also claim damages.

Whoever ends it must give the other side at least 30 days’ notice, in writing or another form the contract agrees on, unless the parties agree otherwise. If breaching this notice rule causes damage, compensation must be paid as the law provides.

Three notice periods apply in different cases:

• No fixed term: the lease ends 90 days after the landlord notifies the tenant.
• Home severely damaged or cleared: the landlord gives at least 30 days’ written notice, except in force majeure or unless otherwise agreed.
• Unilateral termination on the grounds above: at least 30 days’ notice, unless otherwise agreed.

If the Landlord Sells the Home or Someone Dies

• If the owner dies while your lease term still runs, you can keep renting until the term ends; the heir must continue the lease, unless you agree otherwise.
• If the owner sells or otherwise transfers the home while your lease term still runs, you can keep renting until the term ends. The new owner must continue the lease, unless you agree otherwise.
• If you, the tenant, die while the lease term still runs, whoever was living with you can keep renting until the term ends. This doesn’t apply to official-duty housing, or where the parties agreed otherwise, or where the law says otherwise.

Registering Your Stay

You declare temporary residence to the commune, ward or special-zone police, or the local police post or station, through the person who directly manages or runs the place you stay. That person must ask to see your passport or other international travel document, plus your residence papers, before agreeing to let you stay. See Temporary Residence Registration in Vietnam for who files it and by when.

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Not confirmed: Whether a verbal, incomplete or unauthorised lease is void: get a written lease from the owner or their authorised agent. Whether a lease written in English alone holds up with the ward office or a court: add a Vietnamese version. Whether leaving early for a personal reason ends the lease cleanly: agree an exit clause.

General information checked against the sources listed above, not legal advice for your situation. Rules and office practice change; confirm with the immigration office or a licensed adviser before you act. See how guides are checked.

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