Q.Hello Attorney, how are you? We always read your article in Balita Newspaper . We would like to seek your opinion or advice regarding our real property in the Philippines. We have acquired a property in 1977, but immigrated to Canada in 1987, without disposing of our house & lot.
My brother lived there for a while from 1977 – 1992 until he migrated to Canada. My aunt who has health problems and in dire need of a place to stay, requested a favor if she and her married son can temporarily stay in our house, which we agreed. Unfortunately, my aunt passed away in 2000, living his son and his family in our property.
After the death of my aunt, we allowed her son and family to continue their stay in our property. During this period, knowing the hardship that their family is into, we never ask for any rent payments.
In fact, we are the one paying for our property taxes each year. However, we are now considering selling this, but it seems that my cousin is giving us hard time in vacating the premises.
Mentioning that there are certain laws, which we are not well aware, since we have been in Canada for a long time. Is there such a legal impediment for us, requiring him to leave our property since he is not paying any rent and staying there for free all the time? Also, for your information, we offered him to purchase our property, but he cannot meet our terms and conditions so we are offering it to other relatives.
We would greatly appreciate if you can give us information or guidance regarding this matter. Thank you and God Bless, C. C.
Ans: Thank you for writing and for being a part of the global Batas Pinoy Community .
Firstly, as the lawful and rightful owner of the subject property, you and your family have the absolute right to enjoy, take possession, use and dispose your property in accordance with law.
The fact that your cousin and his family who has been enjoying your property for quite a while without any leasehold rights nor paying any rental thereof , but merely on the basis of tolerance on the part of the owner(of your family) , are by itself legal grounds to evict them and/or the occupants of the said property.
Furthermore , under the Urban Land Reform Law(PD No.1517) as amended, your cousin cannot invoke the benefits under this law, as to afford them the preemptive right to purchase the property in question, even assuming that they have been in possession of the property for more than ten(10) years already.
Under the said law, only legitimate tenants who have occupied the property by virtue of written contract and who have constructed their own building or structure over the subject property can have preemptive right to purchase the property. Hence, this law cannot be applied nor be invoked by your cousin or the occupants of the subject property.
In other words, absence of any contract, not paying any rent and without any lease hold rights over the subject property, your cousin or the occupant(s) thereof, have no security of tenure over your property under the existing law.
Moreover, your cousin can not also invoke the provisions of the Republic Act No. 9653, otherwise known as the Rental Control Act of 2009, and/or the lease hold provisions of the Civil Code of the Philippines, as amended, absence of grounds mentioned above.
If your cousin and his family refuse to vacate the house and lot, in question despite of your formal(written) demand for them to vacate, then your next legal remedy is to file ejectment suit against them.
After the formal demand is made, you can also compel cousin(occupants) to pay the corresponding reasonable rentals for their use of the property, plus the corresponding legal interest and damages as may be established in the summary proceedings of the case .
Notwithstanding that you are now in Canada, you can still initiate legal proceedings through the following:
1. Appoint and designate someone you trust in the Philippines to act as your representative or attorney-in-fact for the said purpose. This can be done by executing a Special Power of Attorney(SPA) , in favour of your agent in the Philippines, and have the said documents notarized before the Philippine Consulate nearest your residence in Canada.
2. Forward this SPA(with red ribbon and seal of the Republic of the Philippines) to the Philippines and upon receipt of the same by your agent , to engage the services of a lawyer , who will initiate legal proceedings against the occupant(s) of your property and for them to pay, reasonable rental fees and corresponding damages, until they have vacated the property.
Needless, to say, if you resort to the filing of legal suit against your cousin and his/her family, it is expected that cordial family relations will be estranged. Thus , the best approach to solve your problem is to settle your differences with your cousin amicably.
Legal suit should be the last resort, where all possible avenues of amicable settlement and for them to peacefully vacate the property fail.
Finally , as the lawful owner(s) of the subject property, you have every legal right to sell and dispose the same to whomsoever buyer who can satisfy your terms and wish to do business with.
Looking forward you’ll find the above in order. Again, thank you for writing and good luck!
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