Finance & Legal Good Lawyer for real estate agreement

I'm not so sure that a mortgage document would grant a foreigner rights to the property. A Philippine Supreme Court case that every foreigner looking to buy land should read: G.R. No. 164584

This directly goes against the idea that you can own property by a Filipino owing you debt. You can't.

Another case: Muller vs Muller:

Another case: Frenzel v. Catito

You simply cannot own land by doing some "you owe me money" trickery.

These cases don't hit on the hereditary rule exception in the constitution that I believe the OP's original lawyer was thinking about when she wrote out the old contract, it only speaks of unlawful ways that foreigners have attempted to circumvent the no-foreigner-land-ownership rule. I think that your "mortgage document" idea would be seen as what it is by the SC, a workaround to give a foreigner land ownership.

As for the hereditary rule, you have to look at the Philippine Civil Code for the specifics, not just the constitution. The Articles that I feel may apply here would be:

Then you have to take into consideration of living relatives (children/parents/siblings/neices/nephews). They are entitled to some of that land as well. Articles 985, 995, 996, 997 and 1001 of the Philippine Civil Code:

So unless the OP's gf is an orphan there is no way he would be entitled to all of the property. The most he would get would be half...if I am interpreting the Civil Code correctly (which I very well may not be). It seems his previous lawyer only went by what the constitution said and did not have a look at the Philippine Civil Code for how the property would be divied up.

However, the fact that the OP is not married to this Filipina would make the entire contract null and void as it would be seen as a testamentary succession and not a hereditary succession, with testamentary successions of property to aliens being deemed illegal by the SC in Palacios v. Vda. de Ramirez:

Being married would turn the OP's illegal testamentary succession into a legal hereditary succession. With some luck he might be able to have their relationship deemed a common-law relationship...but I try not to rely on luck too much in the Philippines.

(Note: I agree with the SC: "for naught and meaningless" is basically how I see ANY attempt of a foreigner to circumvent the law making it illegal for foreigners to own land. It ain't gonna happen, no-way, no-how.....unless you are married to a Filipino and he/she dies, then at best you will only get half of the property you paid for. )[/quote][/quote]

 

Also note that the SC clearly states about foreign land ownership:

No constitutional law has been more contested than foreign land ownership (pretty sad IMO, makes us expats come across as the corrupt ones that try to circumvent the laws or the ones being willful idiots). This should tell everyone everything they need to know. Aside from the exceptions granted in the constitution, YOU WILL NOT OWN PHILIPPINE LAND. People need to stop thinking that they can and lawyers need to stop telling the naive that they know of a way. Anything a half-wit lawyer comes up with has probably already been tried and struck down by the SC. You won't do anything but waste your money and time attempting to do so.

Note: Every SC ruluing is publicly posted on the internet. If a lawyer says they have a work around, google it.

 

Home Mortgage - A loan given by a bank, mortgage company or other financial institution for the purchase of a primary or investment residence.
This falls into the "you owe me money so I own the property" that the SC has struck down as unlawful. /opinion (not legal advice)

Foreign banks ≠ foreign aliens. Any foreign bank operating in the Philippines also has a team of lawyers and lots of high level connections in the government. You, as an individual alien, will never gain the same favor from the law as a multinational financial corporation. Also, foreign banks are unlikely to get taken to the SC level as they will get any issues "resolved" in one way or another long before that point. /opinion (not legal advice)

And I'm sure they are happy to take your money as much as you are happy to take their word. Also, I'm not saying anything, I quoted SC judges from SC rulings and then repeated what they said. If you want to take some small town lawyer's word over SC judges' word, what the Philippine Constitution says and the Civil Code says then go right ahead, it's not like you are using/wasting my money to "invest"/buy/own/control land over locals...nor was I trying to convince you of anything. My posts are directed at the OP; if he wants to take Dumaguete lawyer's words over the Supreme Court's word he can go right ahead and do that, that is also no skin off my @ss.

I also never claimed to be a lawyer or claimed this to be legal advice. Nobody should mistake anything outside of those quote boxes as legal advice. Everything in a quote boxes in my previous post come straight from SC rulings and SC judges. All of it sourced and/or linked. Do what you like with that information. /opinion (not legal advice)

I doubt you can do much to compel her to sell the land for debt she owes you. That would give you indirect control over property, which you are not allowed to have. To know what you are allowed to do and entitled to with debt collections you should find the related articles in the Philippine Civil Code. I could of course be wrong this is just my.../opinion (not legal advice)

...... Dunno, but it sounds like you were talking to a much better lawyer than someone posting here. /opinion (not legal advice)

My apologies, @indranilde, for taking your thread so far off topic.

 

BTW: in the SC case Palacios v. Vda. de Ramirez I posted earlier, "Marcelle Demoron de Ramirez", the widow, was a French alien that acquired property. The SC said:

You will almost certainly be entitled, again - IMO, to half of the estate and be free to do as you please with it. Since you have kids I am not sure what level of control you would have over their share since this wasn't the case in the ruling above. I could only guess you would have control of any of your children's share...unless they were adults.