Marvin Boggs Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 The little lady and I have our eye on a piece of property. I would classify it as a 'farmette' in English vernacular, although it really just has a well and a philippine style house, no other improvements. Some crops and trees. We are already getting a glimpse of the nightmare that is Philippine land title paperwork. An agent with no idea how to structure a deal, a seller who doesn't want to travel or have a phone, a 'mother' deed that was inherited and divided by the children who never completed the processing..... etc... Fortunately our lawyer has told us there is an upcoming amnesty period, which should make things a little easier for the seller. Wish us luck! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimeve Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 2 minutes ago, Marvin Boggs said: The little lady and I have our eye on a piece of property. I would classify it as a 'farmette' in English vernacular, although it really just has a well and a philippine style house, no other improvements. Some crops and trees. We are already getting a glimpse of the nightmare that is Philippine land title paperwork. An agent with no idea how to structure a deal, a seller who doesn't want to travel or have a phone, a 'mother' deed that was inherited and divided by the children who never completed the processing..... etc... Fortunately our lawyer has told us there is an upcoming amnesty period, which should make things a little easier for the seller. Wish us luck! Best of luck with that one. I think you will need more than luck. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy79 Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 Run for the hills. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expatuk2014 Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 Best to keep looking that plot of land sounds like lawyer and paperwork hell ! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Boggs Posted December 10, 2019 Author Posted December 10, 2019 Its still early days so I will keep my optimism for now lads. We had a productive meeting this afternoon with lawyer and agent to wrap our heads around which documents need to be gathered for us to make a Go / No-go decision. Thats the way I'm approaching this. Either we find out the sale CAN happen, in which case I put effort into making it happen. Or we find out it CANT happen, and we just keep looking. I'd say we should be able to make that determination by the end of the year. I discovered something I didn't know: Philippines has an Agrarian Reform law which limits any single owner to no more than 5 hectares of agricultural land. Because of this, it has been pretty common recently for family with more than 5 hectares to go ahead and subdivide land among their children, so the government won't seize it. But being Philippines, the motivation to actually go down and file the deed in their own names...well, lets say now its more clear to me why so many parcels have title or tax issues. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arizona Kid Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 5 hours ago, Marvin Boggs said: The little lady and I have our eye on a piece of property. I would classify it as a 'farmette' in English vernacular, although it really just has a well and a philippine style house, no other improvements. Some crops and trees. We are already getting a glimpse of the nightmare that is Philippine land title paperwork. An agent with no idea how to structure a deal, a seller who doesn't want to travel or have a phone, a 'mother' deed that was inherited and divided by the children who never completed the processing..... etc... Fortunately our lawyer has told us there is an upcoming amnesty period, which should make things a little easier for the seller. Wish us luck! While you are at it. Put in a bid for the Marcos land that was forfeited to the Government. Oh wait.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy79 Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 I would seriously take any up and coming amnesty period with a pinch of salt. Where there are issues with heirs of a Mother title not legally transfering their partition etc there will be charges to pay. Filipino families can be pretty large and to pay off each heir could take time then another heir will appear wanting even more money. The attorney will win either way and the longer he can draw it out the wealthier he will be. I researched property law here for about 2 years before opting for a titled apartment. During this research I kept coming across people who got stung buying on Mother titles that weren't up to date. Buyer beware as they say. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Boggs Posted December 10, 2019 Author Posted December 10, 2019 Yep, those are good points. Attorney will work first on securing a power of attorney for one family member to act on behalf of those involved, which I thought is a good time saving move. The risk of drawn out timing is why I'm pushing the go/no-go decision early to the principal players. No doubt there will be some back taxes owed, so we will need to determine how that impacts the price nego. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary D Posted December 10, 2019 Posted December 10, 2019 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Marvin Boggs said: Yep, those are good points. Attorney will work first on securing a power of attorney for one family member to act on behalf of those involved, which I thought is a good time saving move. The risk of drawn out timing is why I'm pushing the go/no-go decision early to the principal players. No doubt there will be some back taxes owed, so we will need to determine how that impacts the price nego. Yes be prepared to pay the taxes. Making the purchase will be very easy just trying to sort out the mess afterwards can be near impossible. I wouldn't touch anything that doesn't have a clean title. Def not tax declared. Edited December 10, 2019 by Gary D 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Boggs Posted December 10, 2019 Author Posted December 10, 2019 Yeah they wanted half the price up front before even sorting out the paperwork. Har-har what planet are you from again? I let 'em know that wasn't happening, period, until we are satisfied. In these situations, it is usually someone being hard up for cash, so at least I know they will be properly motivated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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