Q. Greetings Atty Wong! We bought parcels of real estate property consisting of two lots in a subdivision in Batangas on installment basis and have fully paid the agreed purchase price. Full payment was contested by the Real Estate Developer but at the end, the Housing Land Use Regulatory Board (HLRUB) issued a decision in our favor.
The Writ of Execution was issued but was not enforced by the Sheriff for reasons that title to said lots was mortgaged by the Developer to the Bank who has a prior lien to the property.
On several occasions whenever we are on vacation in the Philippines, we tried to personally demand from the Developer to surrender to us the certificates of titles covering said lots and/or refund the total purchase price plus interest and Damages awarded in the Decision of the HLRUB, but up to the present the Developer ignores us. We have been in this sad plight for the past 10 years.
What are the other legal remedies to enforce our rights?
Is it true that real estate properties below with an assessed value of 1million are exempt from payment of real property tax?
Are we obliged to pay the corresponding real property tax for said lots even the title is not yet in our name? May we hear from you on this regard? Manolo. Thanks!
Ans: The first logical thing for you to do is to engage the services of a lawyer in the Philippines to prosecute your claim and cause of action(s) against the Developer, more particularly to enforce and satisfy the Writ of Execution.
It is not specifically clear what the tenor of your writ of execution as issued by the HLURB. Where the writ is limited only for the delivery of the title of the subject property and there is legal impossibility of having the title conveyed to you, as the creditor bank has a first or priority lien over the title, the said fact will not stop you from registering your lien over the title through the office of the Register of Deeds. Your lawyer should know what to do and the course of action to pursue given your situation.
Your other option is to opt for the cancellation or recession of the sale contract. If the contract is cancelled, under the MACEDA LAW(RA6552) , buyers of Subdivision lots and Condominium properties on installments basis are entitled to a refund from the seller , the cash surrender value of the payments on the property equivalent to fifty per cent of the total payments made and, after five years of installments payments , an additional five per cent every year but not to exceed ninety percent of the total payment made .
Moreover, if it can be established that the Seller/Developer is in bad faith you are also entitled to the payment of damages and attorney’s fees.
As to the payment of Real Estate taxes, under the law, it is the owner or the property that has the obligation to pay the real estate taxes thereon.
Assuming that the ownership of the said property has not yet been delivered to you, either by Deed of Absolute Sale or the conveyance of the title, then it could not be said that you are the owner of the said lot.
If the developer has not yet conveyed to you the property by way of Deed of Absolute Sale , as what you might have signed or executed with developer previously was only “Contract to Sell”, then what you have right now, is only an interest or rights of the property and NOT the ownership thereof.
Thus under the said situation , it is still the developer as the registered owner of the subject property who is under obligation to pay the real estate taxes due over the said properties.
As to exemption of real property taxes where the value thereof is less than P1 million pesos, this corner is not aware of the existence of such law. The existing rule stand. Owners of real estate properties are duty bound to pay the corresponding real estate taxes of their property.