Effective date: 11 September 2026
Last updated: 11 September 2026
All information on CivilLaw.PH is provided for educational, research and general informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice, a legal opinion, a representation, or a recommendation about any specific person, property, family, dispute or transaction. By using this website you accept the terms set out on this page.
No lawyer-client relationship
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Do not send us information that you expect to be protected by lawyer-client privilege. Consult a qualified Philippine lawyer, or the Public Attorney’s Office if you qualify for its assistance, about your own facts and options.
General information cannot decide an individual case
Civil cases turn on specific facts, documents, dates, survey findings, registry annotations, valuations, family circumstances, evidence and procedure. A general guide, a definition, a checklist or a sample document cannot determine the outcome of a case. Two properties on the same street can produce opposite answers because one is registered and the other is not.
Philippine law only
This website addresses Philippine civil law. It does not describe the law of any other country. Where a guide touches on property owned by Filipinos abroad, foreign heirs, or a document executed overseas, it explains how Philippine law, Philippine registries and Philippine courts treat the matter – not how a foreign system treats it. Where a foreign legal system is involved, advice in that jurisdiction may also be necessary.
No guarantee of accuracy, completeness or currency
We work from reliable sources and review material claims, but statutes, procedural rules, registry practice, tax treatment, jurisdictional thresholds and judicial interpretation all change. Errors, omissions, delays and differences of interpretation may occur. CivilLaw.PH does not guarantee that every page is complete, error-free or current at the moment you read it.
Official sources control
If anything on this website differs from an official statute, procedural rule, government issuance or the full text of a court decision, the official source controls. Summaries, tables, examples and editorial explanation are not substitutes for the complete official text.
The same applies between copies of a legal text. Privately maintained repositories are useful for locating and reading the law, but where an official and an unofficial copy of the same provision both exist, the official one governs.
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Decisions, examples and computations discussed here do not guarantee the same result in another matter. Courts, registries and agencies evaluate the evidence and the law applicable to each case. CivilLaw.PH does not guarantee registration, acceptance of a filing, recovery, settlement, compliance or any other outcome.
Deadlines and urgent matters
Civil claims are subject to demand requirements, prescriptive periods, redemption periods and procedural prerequisites, and some of them are short. The one-year ejectment period and the thirty-day redemption period are two obvious examples. Do not rely on this website to calculate or preserve a deadline. If a period may be running, raise it promptly with a lawyer or the competent office.
Checklists, templates and worked examples
Document checklists, evidence tables, step lists and worked examples are planning aids based on the assumptions stated on the page. They do not reflect every variation in registry practice, local ordinance, tax treatment or factual circumstance, and they do not determine legal rights, jurisdiction or the outcome of a case. They are not official forms unless expressly identified as such, and a template should be reviewed by a qualified professional before it is signed or filed.
Pending bills and emerging rules
We may discuss proposed legislation or draft issuances because readers need to know where the law is heading. Unless a page expressly identifies a measure as enacted and in force, it must not be treated as a current legal requirement.
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Governing law
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Corrections and changes
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