Property reimbursements

Dear Atty. Angela,

My husband and I are owners of a house and lot in the Philippines and while we reside abroad, we allowed my sister and her family to dwell in our house. While they were in possession, our house was demolished and a three-story building was built in its place despite our express dissent. After 10 years, we informed them that another family member needed to use the premises and demanded the surrender of the property. They refused and even claimed that they should be paid the cost of their contribution to the improvement of the property and the construction of the building. Do they have a legal right and should we pay them?

Ellen

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Dear Ellen,

Based on the facts, they demolished your house and constructed the building without your consent and with your express disapproval, which makes them builders in bad faith. As builders in bad faith, they are not entitled to reimbursement of useful expenses.

Article 448 of the Civil Code only talks about a builder in good faith. Under this article, the owner of the land on which anything has been built, sown or planted in good faith, shall have the right to appropriate as his own the works, sowing or planting, after paying indemnity to the person who had built on the owner’s land. The landowner may oblige the builder, planter or sower to pay the proper rent.

In this case, Article 448 cannot be applied. You and your husband, as the owners of the land, have the right to appropriate what has been built on the property, without any obligation to pay indemnity and that they have no right to a refund of any improvement built pursuant to Articles 449 and 450 of the Civil Code:

Art. 449. He who builds, plants or sows in bad faith on the land of another, loses what is built, planted or sown without right of indemnity.

Art. 450. The owner of the land on which anything has been built, planted or sown in bad faith may demand the demolition of the work, or that the planting or sowing be removed, in order to replace things in their former condition at the expense of the person who built, planted or sowed; or he may compel the builder or planter to pay the price of the land, and the sower the proper rent.

Art. 451. In the cases of the two preceding articles, the landowner is entitled to damages from the builder, planter or sower. (Spouses Aquino v. Spouses Aguilar, G.R. No. 182754 (29 June 2015.)

Atty. Angela Antonio