Expat Community > Philippines

standupguy
Joined 2013
Posts: 2947

problems transferring title after buying home

9 years ago

My Filipina wife purchased our home on December 12, 2012. The Vendors title had a couple encumbrances dating back to the 1960's of not more that $200. We were told by her lawyer that we may have to wait not more than 2 years before the Land Title Registrar will process our title transfer to my wife's name. In 2014 & 2015, we paid all the processing fees and did all the filing using a fixer first and then a local lawyer which cost us over $500. Our land title transfer was rejected with no reason given. The Vendor's Davao City lawyer now tells us he can do it for 60,000 p. (but this cannot be trusted since I am certain he will try squeezing much more out of us). He already forced us to pay the Vendor's Capital Gains Tax. Our Notarized Final Deed of Sale was for 200,000 p though the actual cost we had to pay was 1,200,000 p. We met a real estate agent/fixer at Vancouver Airport that said our land title transfer can be done easily in Quezon City. I tried contacting Philippine law firms dealing with this matter in Quezon City by email. We have had no response from any of them. We are in Toril, Davao City. Previously, land titles were transferred to new owners when there were out dated small encumbrances that carried over to the new owners. The original owner died over 5 years ago. Toril's Land Registrar refuses to do anything for us. However, other properties on our street bought by Filipino's with the same problem of encumbrances did get their title transfer after one or two years. Does anyone have any information on the process and cost of land title transfers like ours done in Quezon City? Does anyone know if there are there any law firms or real estate fixers in Quezon City that can help us?

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