Real estate lawyers in Cebu City and across the Philippines.

As a rule, no. The Constitution provides that save in cases of hereditary succession, private land may be transferred only to those qualified to hold land of the public domain. There is a separate provision for a natural-born Filipino who has lost citizenship, who may be a transferee of private land subject to limits set by law. Arrangements designed to defeat the prohibition are the ones we are most often asked to unwind, and unwinding one is expensive.

A tax declaration is not a title. It records that someone has been paying tax on a property; it does not by itself establish who owns it. Before money moves we check what is registered at the Registry of Deeds, who is in possession, and whether the person selling has the authority to sell.

Taxes and registration charges make up most of the cost, and the pace is set by the assessor, the tax authorities, and the Registry of Deeds. We will tell you the sequence and where the delays usually occur before you commit to a closing date.

Yes. It is the cheapest part of the transaction, and it is the only stage at which a problem can still be walked away from. Almost everything that matters about a property can be established before the money moves: the title, the tax position, who is in possession, the boundaries on the ground, the encumbrances annotated on the title, and whether the seller can sell at all. After signing, the same facts become a dispute.

Not always. Some problems are still fixable at the registry, some are answered by documents the seller still holds, and some are subject to periods that are running. What we can do depends on the defect, so bring us the title and the deed.

The law allows an owner to compel a right of way across a neighboring property, on conditions and against an indemnity to the owner who gives it up. Whether your land qualifies turns on the facts of the two properties, so have it assessed before you negotiate with the neighbor.

What happens at the end of the term, who repairs what, what may be improved and who owns the improvement afterwards, and what either side may do if the other stops performing. We act for owners and for tenants, and the provisions that matter are the same for both.

The options depend on how the occupation began and how long it has run, because those two facts decide which case you file and how quickly it can move. The wrong case can be dismissed. We establish which applies before drafting anything.