British Expats - Expats Owning Land/property in Philippines

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- Philippines (https://britishexpats.com/forum/philippines-155/)

- - Expats Owning Land/property in Philippines (https://britishexpats.com/forum/philippines-155/expats-owning-land-property-philippines-866023/)

Expats Owning Land/property in Philippines

Thought I would make a separate topic on this, as opposed to cluttering up Pete's topic.

In general it seems that the ruling is that as a Non-Filipino you are allowed to inherit land/property to do with as you wish ( seemingly with the exception of leaving it to another expat in your will ). There seems to be no time limit to how long you can have it, but there are strings attached as you will see below.

I shall review some of the legal sites and see if one I can decipher them and if the agree with this one and approach my local lawyer/judge then post my findings.

Using our common example of Fil-Foreign family, let’s look at what happens when the Filipino partner passes away. (nothing really happens property-wise when the foreigner partner passes, since s/he never owned the property to begin with). Wills are much less common here than in many developed countries. But they certainly are used. But when real property is involved, there is a basic underlying law which takes precedence over any language in a will. Philippine law stipulates a reserved portion of all estates for compulsory heirsCertain parts of the estate of a deceased Filipino citizen cannot be freely disposed of because Philippines law reserves them for the “compulsory heirs”. The “compulsory heirs” are classified as:

Primary – legitimate children and/or descendants
Secondary – legitimate parents and/or descendants; illegitimate parents
Concurring – surviving spouse; illegitimate children and/or descendants

This is one of the reasons I advise a lot of caution and competent legal advice before rushing off to buy property here. Note, in the three levels of “compulsory heirs” the surviving spouse comes, at best, on the third level of heirs to be endowed. The legitimate children of the marriage, the legitimate parents, illegitimate parents (a common occurrence here) all come first and the surviving spouse has to battle it our on level three with illegitimate children who may show up.Here’s a typical example case: If a deceased is survived by her husband and four legitimate children, ½ of her hereditary estate is reserved equally between the children (1/8 each) whilst the husband takes the same share as one legitimate child i.e. 1/8. This leaves 3/8 of the estate which can be freely disposed of in accordance with her will.The free portion of a hereditary estate can be freely willed to any person or class of person with the capacity to succeed under the Civil Code, even if that person is already a compulsory heir, with a prescribed share.OK, so that means that the surviving spouse gets 1/8 under the compulsory law, but the wife could have made a will which gives him the ‘left over’ 3/8 as well … totaling up to one half, and the children have the other half (which he is likely the legal guardian of), so why worry?One good reason to worry. A foreigner can inherit from a Filipino spouse, so long as he or she inherits from an intestate estate,that is, one with no will. Non-Filipino citizens, who can inherit land by hereditary or intestate succession (without a will) but not by testamentary succession (with a will). That 3/8 share we were talking about? It can’t be willed to the surviving spouse.Keep one other thing in mind … the foreigner who inherits in this way is legally the owner under Philippine law, but he/she can not sell or bequeath to another foreigner. In other words the foreign ownership can not be a chain. the property does belong to the surviving foreign spouse but he/she can’t dispose of it at will. It can only be sold or bequeathed to a natural-born Filipino.I already have a headache, myself. I think you can get enough of a taste here to see why I feel the property laws, especially with ‘mixed’ couples here are very convoluted. I see couple all the time who have invested their life savings and it’s all at risk because of children the wife had previously or even a case where the Filipino spouse’s father never married her mother and disappeared. If the man is still alive and chooses to, he can show up and demand his share of her estate … in front of the woman’s surviving spouse. If he has children, they can show up and claim their share of their father’s share. They may not prevail, but it will cost a small fortune in legal costs and months or years in court to defend against their claim. How strange is that?