Short answer. Two metres for anything giving a direct view, sixty centimetres for a side or oblique one. Article 670 measures from the wall in which the opening is made to your property. And it closes the obvious escape: non-observance of these distances does not give rise to prescription.
What the law says
No windows, apertures, balconies, or other similar projections which afford a direct view upon or towards an adjoining land or tenement can be made, without leaving a distance of two meters between the wall in which they are made and such contiguous property.
Civil Code, Article 670 — Distances For Windows And Views. Read the full provision →
Two distances, and what separates them
A direct view is one you get by looking straight out — the opening faces your land, and someone standing at it sees it without effort. That needs two metres. A side or oblique view is obtained only by leaning out and looking along the wall, and sixty centimetres suffices for it. The distinction is about the orientation of the opening, not about how much can actually be seen, so a window in a wall parallel to the boundary is the sixty-centimetre case however good the view is once you put your head out of it.
The list is wider than windows
The article covers windows, apertures, balconies, or other similar projections, which takes in terraces, galleries, roof decks, overhanging landings and viewing platforms. What matters is that the thing affords a view towards the adjoining land. Measurement is also specific and often got wrong: it runs from the wall in which the opening is made to the contiguous property — that is, to the boundary line — not from the edge of a projection, and not between the two houses. A balcony that projects out from a compliant wall is still measured from the wall.
The sentence that defeats the usual defence
Neighbours who have had a non-compliant window for twenty years generally believe that time has settled the matter. The last line of the article says otherwise: The nonobservance of these distances does not give rise to prescription. No amount of undisturbed existence converts a violation into a right. An easement of light and view can be acquired, but not merely by having built too close and gone unchallenged — so the age of the opening is not the answer to a complaint about it, though your own delay may matter for other reasons.
Measure it properly before you write to anyone
These arguments are won and lost on the survey. Have a licensed surveyor establish the boundary and the perpendicular distance from the wall containing the opening, because a dispute conducted with a tape measure and two different ideas of where the line runs goes nowhere. Photograph the opening, note whether it faces your lot or runs along it, and get the building plans if you can. Local building regulations impose their own setback requirements alongside this article, and a plan that breached them is worth knowing about early.
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.
- Sps. Tedy Garcia and Pilar Garcia vs. Loreta T. Santos, Winston Santos and Conchita, G.R. No. 228334, June 17, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Rachel C. Celestial vs. Jesse Cachopero, G.R. No. 142595, October 15, 2003 — read the decision on LawPhil →