If the provisions of the Construction Law are silent about the transfer of a statutory vacant land, a registration agency shall still examine if the transfer violates any compulsory or prohibitive provisions of other laws and regulations(Taiwan)

Luke Hung
The Ministry of the Interior issued the Nei-Shou-Zhong-Ban-Di-1050046405 Circular of July 21, 2016 (hereinafter, the “Circular”), holding that if the provisions of the Building Act are silent about the transfer of a statutory vacant land, a registration agency shall still examine if the transfer violates any compulsory or prohibitive provisions of other laws and regulations.

According to the Circular, Article 11, Paragraph 3 of the Building Act specifically provides that “the statutory vacant land which shall be reserved shall not be divided, transferred or repeatedly used unless stipulated under applicable requirements; and the rules for the division criteria and application procedure shall be prescribed by the central competent authority for buildings.” Therefore, the division of a statutory vacant land shall be governed by the above rules for the division of statutory vacant lands for building sites prescribed pursuant to legal authorization. If the transfer of statutory vacant lands is not stipulated by the Building Act, other laws and regulations shall be followed.

It is further pointed out in this Circular that although the Building Act contains no other restriction on the transfer registration of statutory vacant lands handled by a registration agency, the registration agency is still required to examine if the transfer violates any compulsory or prohibitive requirement.