Dear Atty. Shalie,

My parents bought a parcel of land more than 20 years ago. The sale is evidenced by a Deed of Absolute Sale, which was also notarized. This is where we established our residence and lived since then, even after my father died about three years ago.

Shortly after my father’s death, we are being disturbed in our possession and ownership of our property. The grandchildren of the previous owner from whom my parents bought the property recently appeared and have asked us to vacate our home, claiming that they are in possession of a Transfer Certificate of Title to the same property, which was part of the property they inherited from their deceased grandparents.

They claimed that since we never registered the sale with the Register of Deeds and there was no annotation on the Title to the property that was subject to the extra-judicial settlement among the heirs, they were able to have it transferred to their names.

The Title to the property is evidence of their ownership, and we should turn over the property to them. Do we still have any right to our home, considering that we were not able to register the sale between the original owner and our parents?

Carlos

Dear Carlos,

It is clear that your parents cannot be denied any right over the property they acquired by valid sale, despite the fact that they were not able to have such sale registered and/or annotated to the title and their failure to have the same transferred to their names.

You and your mother may institute a case to nullify the extra-judicial settlement and for the subject property to be segregated from the partition made by the original owner’s heirs. You may raise as an issue your right as buyers in good faith, to determine if the property in question could still be part of the estate of the original owners that could be passed down to the heirs by succession.

The question of ownership of the property will be determined by the validity and due execution of the deed of sale between the seller and buyer (your parents and the original owner), as against the ownership claimed by the heirs by succession. The fact that the grandchildren were able to transfer the title of the property to their names, will not deprive you of your rights over the property, as registration is not a mode of acquiring ownership.

They cannot become the owners of the subject property by virtue of succession if, in the first place, the original owner sold it during his lifetime.

Atty. Shalimar P. Lazatin-Obinque