Short answer. Four years in good faith, or eight years without any other condition. Article 1132 sets both periods for movables and requires the possession to be uninterrupted. But the same article preserves special rules where the thing was lost or the owner was illegally deprived of it.
What the law says
The ownership of movables prescribes through uninterrupted possession for four years in good faith. The ownership of personal property also prescribes through uninterrupted possession for eight years, without need of any other condition.
Civil Code, Article 1132 — Prescription of Movables. Read the full provision →
Two routes, one requirement in common
Ownership of movables prescribes through uninterrupted possession for four years in good faith, and it also prescribes through uninterrupted possession for eight years, without need of any other condition. The second route asks nothing about your state of mind, which is why it is longer. Common to both is that the possession must be uninterrupted, so a stretch during which the machine was taken from you, or during which you parted with it and later got it back, is not simply added to the rest of the years.
Good faith is judged at acquisition
It is not a running commentary on how you feel now, but a question about what you believed when you took the thing. Article 1127 describes it as the reasonable belief that the person from whom you received the thing was its owner and could transmit ownership. The word doing the work is reasonable. Buying a motorcycle at a fraction of its worth, without papers, from a seller who could not explain how he came by it is not the picture that provision describes, whatever the buyer privately told himself at the time.
The exception that decides most of these disputes
The article expressly preserves other provisions of the Code where an owner seeks to recover personal property lost or of which he has been illegally deprived, and where the thing was bought in a public sale, fair or market, or from a merchant's store. So if the motorcycle was stolen, the four and eight year periods are not the whole answer, and where you bought it may matter a great deal. Article 1133 adds that movables possessed through a crime can never be acquired by prescription by the offender.
Assemble the acquisition
The deed of sale or receipt and its date, the seller's identity and how you came to find him, the price paid measured against what the machine was worth, the registration and its history, and any inspection or clearance obtained at the time. Then the possession: continuous use, insurance, repairs, storage, anything dated. If a demand has been made on you, do not surrender the unit or sign anything before advice, and do not alter or re-register it, because the paper trail as it stands is the case.
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.
- Lim Tay vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 126891, August 5, 1998 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1133 — Stolen Movables Never Prescribe for the Thief
- Civil Code, Article 1140 — Recovery of Movables — 8 Years