The Dreaded Property Disputes Begin

[hk blues]

10 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I have heard of that happening, but only anecdotally, and only when the taxes have not been paid for 10 years or more, and only on tax dec land.  It's Philippines.

That I can understand.  It can't be as simple as it sounds and there has to be criteria  - even in the Philippines. 

[Snowy79]

11 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I have heard of that happening, but only anecdotally, and only when the taxes have not been paid for 10 years or more, and only on tax dec land.  It's Philippines.

I'm sure you are correct about the ten years paying tax. If I remember correctly they can then apply for a Free Patent which is a short cut to having the title. It was introduced many years ago to speed up titling applications, basically if you showed ten years taxes your paperwork was stamped as it showed the LGU never required the land. 

[jlobrist]

Update: The fence is up in the problem areas and the contractors are continuing to finish the rest of the fence around the property. All places where neighbors have been passing through or illegally entering are fenced off. My wife’s bodyguard stood by and made sure neighbors and the workers rerouted around our property and that know one interrupted the fence builders. 
 

My wife is now back in Cavite and will go to Bicol again next week, with her bodyguard, to see the finished fence and to continue with title transfer tasks. We have a relative of our in-laws, who is also a neighbor, that will be staying in our small kubo to maintain and keep an eye on the property.

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. The most common suggestion is to sell and/or run away from the purchase. Running away seems unrealistic when the property is paid for and will eventually be in my wife’s name. Selling it is obviously what we’ll have to do since we’ll probably never be safe living there. Rushing to sell doesn’t seem necessary since we weren’t planning on living there any time soon and we should wait for paper work to be finished. We’ll most likely wait for the right offer and sell when that time comes. 
 

As for the neighbors, hopefully they will take note of the warnings they have been given and leave the fence alone. They’ll most likely be hiring their own survey soon and realize they are wrong and that we are not willing to let them bully their way onto our property. They are land grabbers and will eventually lose. If they take down the fence, we’ll document the damage and file a case against them. This might be an unpopular action, but letting people like this get away with stealing property cannot be allowed. We have many contacts in Bicol through in-laws, police friends, our bodyguard who is well known there, and the barangay captain who seems to like the bottle of tequila my wife brought him a few weeks ago. The police chief also seems very willing to help my wife too. 

[Old55]

It's good you have a trusted family member living on the property. This may discourage some future issues. 

"Remembering" the Baragay captain and police chief for Christmas would be well worthwhile in this case. 

[jlobrist]

41 minutes ago, Old55 said:

"Remembering" the Baragay captain and police chief for Christmas would be well worthwhile in this case. 

Great suggestion. She’ll continue to visit the property every so often to pay the care taker. Bringing gifts with her would be definitely worth while. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, jlobrist said:

Running away seems unrealistic when the property is paid for and will eventually be in my wife’s name. Selling it is obviously what we’ll have to do since we’ll probably never be safe living there.

Seems logical.  It is always the foreigner who gets blamed for these things so your wife should be fine.  I can only think of a couple of foreigners who got killed over property disputes after they had won the fight.  Its enough to keep a low profile until you can sell it but not enough to run away.

[Snowy79]

Good luck in your venture and a wise decision to sell up from a distance once everything is in place. 

On a side note a friend on Boracay with a 25yr lease on a very large property with pool had 19yrs lease left and had a visit from the owners with a few armed men, they were forcefully evicted without being allowed to pack up even their pets. They lost the lot, the only things they got out was what they were wearing and could carry.

They can't even push it too far as it's a small island and life is cheap so have had to bite the bullet.  Other friends are helping where possible but again can't stick their heads up due to the owners reputation.

In June this year 8 security guards took over another hotel, the Circa hotel at gunpoint, those were fortunately arrested but no doubt out on bail now and when I was looking to buy on Mount Luho in 2015 I was asking about properties and advised by my partner at the time to leave one that I had my eye on.  Three days later the security guard was shot dead in a land dispute. 

 

[fillipino_wannabe]

Have fun transferring the title, I've just finished that ordeal, took over 18 months and that was with my wife having a personal assistant going to the various offices every 2-3 weeks to follow up. The best part was when the one of the offices fined us for taking too long to transfer it but that was only because we had to wait for the DAR clearance first.

[Mike J]

18 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

On a side note a friend on Boracay with a 25yr lease on a very large property with pool had 19yrs lease left and had a visit from the owners with a few armed men, they were forcefully evicted without being allowed to pack up even their pets. They lost the lot, the only things they got out was what they were wearing and could carry.

About ten years ago the wife and I stayed at a small resort near Moalboal and the owner told a similar story.  After he built the resort a guy showed up with two others armed with shotguns saying he was the actual owner and told him he had 30 days to vacate or else.  The resort owner happened to be married to a lady whose father was somehow involved with local criminals.  When the 30 days was up the guy showed up with his two shotgun men and was met with four guys holding assault rifles.   After a brief "discussion" the guy left saying it was all a misunderstanding and his paperwork had the wrong description.  

[Joey G]

The more likely issue will be... the cost of going to court to settle any property/deed/title/property line issues.... that is real, common, prolonged, and expensive. In many areas deeds/titles were documented on the back of an envelope (literally) until a few years ago... and they have dozens of fingers attached to them... and are also subject to the whim of the local clerk. Lawyers have little incentive to finish a case.  Yes, it's possible to buy property in the Philippines and enjoy it... but if there's any other than crystal clear transfer with no issues... I wouldn't bother.