Short answer. A sale ends in three ways under the Civil Code: by the ordinary causes that extinguish any obligation, by the causes stated in the Title on sales itself, and by redemption — either the repurchase the parties agreed on, or a redemption the law gives someone regardless of agreement.
What the law says
Sales are extinguished by the same causes as all other obligations, by those stated in the preceding articles of this Title, and by conventional or legal redemption.
Civil Code, Article 1600 — How Sales Are Extinguished. Read the full provision →
Three families of causes, not one
Article 1600 is a signpost. It says sales are extinguished by the same causes as all other obligations — payment, loss of the thing, condonation, merger, compensation, novation and prescription — and also by those stated in the preceding articles of this Title, which are the causes peculiar to sales, such as rescission and the failure of a condition the parties attached. Then it adds the family most readers are actually asking about: conventional or legal redemption. So a person trying to work out whether a sale is still alive has to check all three lists, not just the redemption clause written into the deed.
Conventional redemption — the repurchase you agreed to
Conventional redemption is the right the seller reserved for himself in the contract to buy the property back. It exists only because the parties created it, so its shape is set by the deed: who may exercise it, on what terms, and within what period. Where the deed fixes no period, the law supplies a short one; where it fixes a period, the law caps how long that may run. The right dies when the period lapses without a valid tender, and the buyer's ownership then becomes absolute. Because the clock is unforgiving, a seller who intends to repurchase should tender and, if refused, act in court rather than rely on a verbal extension.
Legal redemption — the right the law hands out
Legal redemption owes nothing to the parties' agreement. It is a right the law gives certain persons to step into the buyer's place by paying what he paid. A co-owner may redeem a share sold to an outsider; an adjoining owner of small rural or urban land may redeem in the situations the Code describes; a co-heir may redeem an hereditary right sold to a stranger. The buyer cannot contract this away, because it is not his to give. It is, however, tightly timed — the period runs from written notice of the sale — and it is a right to substitute yourself for the buyer, not a right to a lower price.
A common trap: the sale that is really a loan
Many so-called sales with right of repurchase are lending arrangements dressed up as sales, because a lender would rather hold title than a mortgage. The Civil Code allows such a contract to be treated as an equitable mortgage where the signs are present — a price far below value, the seller staying in possession, repeated extensions of the repurchase period, or the seller continuing to pay taxes on the land. The consequence matters enormously: a mortgage is foreclosed with the safeguards foreclosure carries, while a lapsed repurchase simply loses the property. If your deed looks like this, keep the receipts, the tax declarations and the messages about extensions, and take advice before the period runs out.
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.
- Emilla M. Uraca, et al. vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 115158, September 5, 1997 — read the decision on LawPhil →