Divorce

AFAIK yes, a long term lease contract should prevent the financing party from being unduly evicted by the owning party upon a separation, or by her heirs in case of her death.
Moreover, under Philippine law, husband inherits from wife, so "her relatives" can't just confiscate the house after the owner dies. If the lady has children then obviously those children would inherit also. Parents, brothers/sisters don't inherit unless the lady is single and has no children at the time of death.

 

The husband is the surviving spouse so 50% of the property is his. Also if there are any children involved he has a share of the other 50% as an heir. For example if there are 3 children each child would get 25 % of the remainder along with the husband who will also get 25%. If there are no children this is where the whole thing turns into a rodeo. The husband still has 50% as surviving spouse but then the whole family turns into heirs as well and often has enough money or legal clout to make things very difficult for the surviving spouse to exercise his rights to remain in possession of the house or an offer could be made to buy him out. Finally ending up in court and possibly an unfavorable decision due to the judge deeming the offer was fair to the poor Filipino's who have no income and have lost their jobs. This happened to a friend in Valencia where the family were all working but quit Their jobs to pursue the case and get a favorable judgement.

 

I have heard conflicting opinions of a foreigner being able to use the 'long term lease' provision and am still not sure if the Courts would allow when it comes to inheritance.

An opinion I found re inheritance is (https://lawyerphilippines.org/2019/...ance-laws-foreigners-filipinos-dual-citizens/):

Compulsory heirs are determined by law.

1. Legitimate children and descendants (grandchildren, great-grandchildren)
2. If there are no legitimate children or descendants, legitimate parents and ascendants of legitimate children and descendants
3. Surviving legal spouse
4. Illegitimate children

So the spouse ranks number 3, behind legitimate children and their descendants, behind parents, behind ascendants and descendants of legitimate children. Would a Court over-rule any of these compulsory heirs to give a foreign spouse a lift up the ladder because they had a lease? I have read before, but no source left in my memory bank, that Courts tend to dismiss any method which gives a foreigner claims over Filipino land.

These are the issues that often have to be fought out in the Courts after a death and may take years. The case I cited earlier was one of those - an elderly foreigner, recently widowed and probably not in good health, taking on his late wife's family through the machinations of the Filipino legal system. He died two years later, perhaps due in part to the additional stress.

 

so if i misunderstood i apologize, but i was not the one i don't think that suggested the lease is inheritable from the original purchaser by his/her heirs, however the lease i think can be done as a corporate purchase with other corporate members who can carry on in the event of one of their members involved in the original purchase. i freely admit i do not have any local legal opinion on this, just the recall of a number of converations on the subject including with philippine attorneys. i would note that i have not and probably never will buy property here as the list of horror stories is quite long. obviously using a good attorney would be a prerequisite for any such purchase.

 

Agree - there is the law and then there is the Court's interpretation of the law (often in favour of the Filipinos). I would rather go by the outcome of actual cases than by what people read is the law.

 

A 'method' of dealing with this problem might be to insure the life of the Filipino spouse (which should be low premiums* due to often being young), IF Philippine law (or the biased interpretation of it) allows the foreigner to inherit the policy payout, such that the surviving foreign spouse is covered if he loses the house.

* But I did look into this and found premiums to be about 200% of UK equivalents.

 

So how would you get them out if the circumstances arose? Crowbar? I think unless a foreigner wants a knifing he knows to avoid confrontation (with a whole family!) and has only the option of the 'law' (LOL) - even that option has a risk in that his death would end the litigation!

 

Intrigued as to the meaning.

 

Google is no help here: Ferroans were pale-blue skinned humanoids with gold eyes. (from Starwars wiki )