Legal Question in Criminal Law in Philippines

recovering the sum of money

Can we still recover the P500, 000 we paid to the seller of a house and lot which has no proper title yet but a tax declaration only? The only solid thing we have at hand is the acknowledgement receipt signed by the husband and was written by the wife as payment of a house a lot, of which the location was not specified in the said receipt. We had given the money in full trust even if the deed of absolute sale was not yet signed by both parties. With the owners' permission we lived in the house with them hoping that they would soon leave after 1-2 weeks as verbally agreed before the initial payment was made since the total price of the property was P1,300,000.00. However, after some disagreements since they wouldn't vacate the place unless we'd give them another P400,000 for them to start building a new house to live on and since we received a demand letter from their attorney that our intial payment would be forfeited unless we can pay the remaining balance of P800,000 within one month (which was supposed to be paid within 6 mos as verbally agreed), our payment would be forfeited, we decided to vacate the place and get our money back. But they refused to do so and the said property has been sold to another entity. Can we? thank


Asked on 5/23/07, 8:35 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Reynaldo Destura Destura & Associates Law Offices

Re: recovering the sum of money

You should immediately sue them for recover of possession of the property, specific performance on the provision of your original contract and have the same annotated on the tax declaration by way of 'lis pendens'. The property, though not covered by the Torens Title System' is still subject to a valid conveyance considering that it is registered under the tax declaration system. Ownership of the property is given recognition even via tax declaration. YOu have to immediately act so as not to loose your opppurtunity of being able to recover and being able to prohibit them from transacting on the same property.

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Answered on 5/23/07, 8:14 pm
Frederick de Borja DE BORJA LAMORENA AND DUANO LAW OFFICES

Re: recovering the sum of money

It would depend. If the acknowledgment receipt indicates that the payment was an earnest money for a period of time, and the period has already passed, then you cannot recover it anymore. If the receipt does not indicate anything then generally you can recover the money because the sale did not materialize.

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Answered on 5/24/07, 3:36 am


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