Short answer. Yes, for rent. Article 544 treats rent as civil fruits, which accrue daily and belong to a good-faith possessor in proportion to the days he actually held the property. Natural and industrial fruits follow a different rule — they are his only if gathered before his good-faith possession was legally interrupted.
What the law says
A possessor in good faith is entitled to the fruits received before the possession is legally interrupted.
Civil Code, Article 544 — Good-Faith Possessor's Right to Fruits. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Civil fruits are deemed to accrue daily and belong to the possessor in good faith in that proportion.
Civil Code, Article 544 — Good-Faith Possessor's Right to Fruits. Read the full provision →
The good-faith possessor keeps the fruits — up to a point
Article 544 rewards honest possession by letting the possessor keep what the property produced while he believed his claim was sound: a possessor in good faith is entitled to the fruits received before the possession is legally interrupted. He need not account for the harvests taken or the rents collected during that period. The entitlement is not open-ended, though; it runs only until his good-faith possession is legally interrupted — the moment the law fixes as the end of his innocent belief in his claim. What he receives before that line is his; what comes after it is not treated the same way.
Rent is a civil fruit that accrues daily
Rent is the classic civil fruit, and the article gives it a proportional rule: civil fruits are deemed to accrue daily and belong to the possessor in good faith in that proportion. Because rent is treated as earned day by day rather than in a lump at the end of a lease, the possessor keeps the portion corresponding to the days he actually held the property in good faith. If his possession is interrupted midway through a rental period, the rent is split along the calendar — his up to the cut-off, and the true owner's from then on — rather than awarded whole to whoever happens to collect it.
Natural and industrial fruits work differently
Not all fruits are apportioned by the day. Natural fruits, such as the spontaneous produce of the land, and industrial fruits, such as crops raised by cultivation, are considered received from the time they are gathered or severed. The test for these is the act of harvesting, not the passage of time: if they were gathered while the possessor was still in good faith, they are his in full; if they were still hanging or growing when his good-faith possession was interrupted, they are not, and pending crops fall to be settled under separate rules on cultivation expenses. So the daily-proportion idea in the question is precise for rent but not for harvests.
Everything turns on when possession is interrupted
The decisive date on every side of this is the legal interruption of the possession, so identifying it is the practical task. It is not simply the day the possessor happened to feel doubt, but the point the law treats his good faith as ending — typically when he is served with a claim or otherwise made aware of the flaw in his position. Fixing that date settles the rest almost mechanically: rent divides at it, and harvests belong to whoever had gathered them by then. A possessor keen to know what he may keep should first pin down when, in law, his good-faith possession stopped.
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.
- Spouses Godfrey and Ma. Teresa Teves vs. Integrated Credit and Corporate Services, Co. (now CAROL AQUI), G.R. No. 216714, April 4, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Pen Development Corporation and Las Brisas Resort Corporation vs. Martinez Leyba, Inc, G.R. No. 211845, August 9, 2017 — read the decision on LawPhil →