Short answer. No. The Civil Code voids any disposition in a will that declares all or part of the estate inalienable for more than twenty years. A testator can restrict the sale of estate property for a period, but a clause meant to keep it locked up indefinitely, or beyond twenty years, does not hold.
What the law says
The dispositions of the testator declaring all or part of the estate inalienable for more than twenty years are void.
Civil Code, Article 870 — The Twenty-Year Limit on Inalienability. Read the full provision →
Twenty years is the ceiling, not a suggestion
Article 870 draws a hard line: a testator can bind an estate to stay unsold, but only up to twenty years. Beyond that, the restriction is void — not merely unenforceable at someone's request, but without legal effect from the start. A will drafted to keep a family home, farm, or business "forever," "until all the grandchildren are grown," or for any span longer than twenty years is reaching for something the law simply does not allow a testator to impose on the heirs.
Why the law puts a limit on this at all
Property that cannot be sold or divided is property that cannot respond to the needs of the people who actually own it — heirs who need money, who disagree about how to use it, or whose circumstances change decades after the testator died. The twenty-year cap balances a testator's wish to control what happens to the estate after death against the heirs' own right, once they inherit, to eventually deal with what is theirs. A period is allowed; permanence is not.
What happens to the clause once it exceeds the limit
Article 870 strikes down the offending disposition, not the will as a whole or the inheritance itself. Property covered by a void inalienability clause still passes to the heirs named in the will; what falls away is the restriction on selling or otherwise disposing of it. Heirs facing a clause that purports to lock up estate property beyond twenty years, or with no end date at all, are not without a share — the clause restraining their use of that share is what does not survive.
What this means if you are drafting or contesting a will
If you are writing a will and want to keep property together for a period — to give a business time to stabilize, or to keep a home available until the youngest child reaches a certain age — the restriction has to fit within twenty years to hold up. If you are an heir bound by a clause that looks like it goes further than that, the starting point is checking exactly what the will says the restriction covers and for how long, since the twenty-year limit is what determines whether the clause can actually be enforced against you.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Hilarion, Jr. and Enrico Orendain, represented by Fe Orendain vs. Trusteeship of the Estate of Doña Margarita Rodriquez, G.R. No. 168660, June 30, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →