It is generally believed that if both parties have no objection to the original oral agreement and an exchange has actually occurred, then an exchange relationship has been established. As long as the land exchange is the true intention of both parties and does not harm the interests of others, the oral agreement is considered legal and valid. According to the relevant provisions of the Rural Land Contract Law, land contract management rights can be transferred through subcontracting, leasing, exchange, transfer, etc. In rural areas, many farmers will voluntarily negotiate to exchange their contracted land for agricultural land. However, many disputes also emerged after the land exchange. Today we've addressed several common questions.

1. Land exchange. No written contract has been signed. Are verbal agreements valid? Party A and Party B are villagers in the same village. Eighteen years ago, both parties verbally agreed to exchange 2 acres of farmland. Now Party A originally contracted to collect the cultivated land. Party A broke its promise and wanted the land back. Although the villagers in the same village did not sign a written contract after reaching the land exchange agreement, the two parties have exchanged land for 18 years, and during this period the two parties did not raise any objections. Although Article 37 of the Rural Land Contract Law stipulates that a written contract must be signed to transfer land contract management rights in exchange, this provision is a norm. Its legislative purpose is to encourage and guide both parties to enter into written contracts to prevent disputes. This is not a requirement for the exchange contract to be effective. Therefore, a non-written exchange contract cannot be considered invalid. According to the relevant provisions of the Contract Law, laws and administrative regulations stipulate that contracts must be concluded in writing. If the parties do not adopt a written form, but one party has performed its main obligations and the other party accepts it, the contract is established.

Second, after the land exchange, whether the contract itself has legal effect, without the need to go to the relevant government departments to register changes. Article 38 of the "Rural Land Contract Law" stipulates that "Land contract management rights shall be transferred by exchange or transfer. If the parties apply for registration, they shall apply for registration to the local people's government at or above the county level. Without registration, no transactions with genuine Third-party confrontation. "That is to say, the registration of exchange and transfer is an application, and the parties are not forced to register. Without registration, it simply does not allow opposition to a real third party. According to Article 14 of the Supreme People’s Court’s Interpretation on Legal Issues Applicable in the Trial of Cases Involving Rural Land Contract Disputes, the contractor shall transfer the land contract management rights through subcontracting, leasing, exchange or other means in accordance with the law. The contract developer shall not support the contract solely on the grounds that the land contract management rights transfer contract has not been recorded. Therefore, whether a land contract management right transfer contract is registered or not is not a mandatory legal requirement and does not affect the validity of the contract.

Can we exchange land if we are not members of the same collective economic organization? Article 40 of the Rural Land Contract Law stipulates that land contract management rights belonging to the same collective economic organization can be exchanged between contractors. In other words, contractors who do not belong to the same collective economic organization may not transfer land management rights in exchange. If land management rights are transferred in exchange, the transfer shall be invalid. In short, if the exchange works, the rural land exchange cannot be reversed. If this is an invalid exchange, then the other party cannot break their promise.