I think many Filipinos who are now permanently residing abroad will lose their properties, especially those they inherited from their grandparents/ parents. How?
1. They don’t get to pay real property taxes. Unlike during my parents’ time where the municipal office did not auction off lots with unpaid taxes even for 20 years, ngayon, most municipalities auction properties that remain unpaid even for only 3 years. I personally think this should not be done. Especially in this time where millions of Filipinos live and work abroad. They should be given a longer time frame to settle their amilyar obligations. Wala na silang address dito, hindi rin nila mababasa yung advertisement sa dyaryo na lote at bahay pala nila ay ibebenta na ng munisipyo. At kung may dyaryo man sila, napa liliit naman ng imprenta, hindi rin nila mababasa.
Dapat 8 years before properties are auctioned off.
2. Illegal settlers, encroachers. Most especially when the neighbors know that there’s no caretaker, and that the owners are living abroad.
3. Claimants are same as #2. pag-iinteresan ang lote mo pag wala ka.
Example, my brother in law Bong owns this parcel of land. When I sent him the photo, he was surprised there are plenty of banana trees, eh wala naman yun dating mga tanim. Meron pang temporary fence. He has another 4,000 sqm in the hill with lots of mature fruit bearing trees and bamboos. Nung araw daw isang pataga lang they would earn P300,000 from the bamboos, ngayon wala ng ang mga kawayan.
Banana trees
I accompanied a relative of mine to the assessor’s office in our town to trace all her family’s properties in Binangonan, Rizal.
I volunteered because it would be difficult for her to go without knowing what to do, where to begin the search.
The assessors department staff are helpful and they’re also townmates, classmates, batchmates, lahat na ng mates.
She was surprised that her father had more properties than she expected.
Yung isa meron daw nag-ki-claim. Stressful yan.
She lives in Tennessee and is only here for two months.
My sister in law who lives in Sacramento also gave me a stack of tax declarations under the name of her lolo. She’s also asking me to trace her properties. I can’t do it for her, she has to be the one to come home and talk to her relatives.
Attention Parents: Make a master list of all your real estate holdings, kahit maliit lang 150 square meter or malaki 10 hectares, give the list to your children. Locate it to them, para alam nila kung saan. Wag lang sa mapa, personally show them the actual properties. Brief them about the payment of yearly taxes, how much, sino caretaker, etc. Huwag mag-iwan ng problema sa mga anak. Ayusin ang mga documento. And ask them if they want to keep the properties and assume that responsibility of guarding and spending for it. Kung hindi naman sila interesado gaya kung malayo sa kanila, ibenta mo na lang lahat. Kasi baka mawala lang din.
Ms Annie thank you for your reminders and advices regarding many things- gambling, property taxes, work, etc. i appreciate your ideas and opinions.
Saw this post after a Google search on how we can secure our properties. These are very helpful tips and although sad, it is true. The situation in the Philippines is unfortunate.
Do you have any suggestions on how to handle a situation where one of our siblings is laying claim to all of our parent’s properties? Our parents are both deceased as our mother died a few years ago without leaving a will, she did leave verbal instructions on how to delegate the properties.
We have several properties that both of our parents owned and now our sister, since she has all the paperwork for the properties is claiming that all of them are hers. Is this even possible? Any advice is welcome. Thank you.