How long do I have to complain that the land area I bought was wrong?

Six months, and it runs from delivery

The prescriptive rule is one sentence long: The actions arising from articles 1539 and 1542 shall prescribe in six months, counted from the day of delivery. The starting point is what catches buyers out. It is delivery — not the date of the deed, not the date the title was transferred to your name, and emphatically not the day a surveyor finally told you the lot was short. Many buyers only discover a discrepancy when they fence the property or commission a relocation survey, and by then the six months may already have run.

Land sold by the square metre: the one-tenth rule

Where the sale states an area at the rate of a certain price for a unit of measure or number, the seller must hand over everything the contract states. If he cannot, the vendee may choose between a proportional reduction of the price and the rescission of the contract, provided that, in the latter case, the lack in the area be not less than one-tenth of that stated. So a small shortfall gets you money back; only a shortfall of a tenth or more opens the door to undoing the sale outright. The same structure applies where the area is correct but part of the land is of inferior quality to what was specified.

Land sold for a lump sum: the boundaries govern

A great many Philippine sales are made for a lump sum — one price for one identified parcel. Here the rule flips: there shall be no increase or decrease of the price, although there be a greater or less area or number than that stated in the contract. What you bought is the parcel inside the boundaries, and the figure in square metres is treated as description rather than as the thing sold. The seller must still deliver everything within those boundaries even if it exceeds the stated area, and if he cannot he suffers a reduction. Read your deed before assuming you have an area claim at all — the pricing clause decides which regime you are in.

What the six-month period does not close

This short period governs area and quality complaints of the kind just described. It is not a general amnesty for the seller. A dispute about who owns the land, an overlap between two titles, a boundary that was fraudulently shifted, or a deed that does not reflect what the parties actually agreed are different problems with different periods, and none of them is disposed of by six months passing. But the safe assumption is the strict one.

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.

• Cebu Windland Development Corporation vs. Ong Siao Hua, G.R. No. 173215, May 21, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 1543 — Prescription of Area Actions
• Civil Code, Article 1539 — Sale of Realty by Unit of Measure
• Civil Code, Article 1542 — Sale of Realty for a Lump Sum (Cuerpo Cierto)