Short answer. Ten years. Article 1142 provides that a mortgage action prescribes after ten years. The period runs from the time the right of action accrues, which is a question about when the borrower defaulted and what the loan documents say about demand and acceleration.
What the law says
A mortgage action prescribes after ten years.
Civil Code, Article 1142 — Mortgage Actions — 10 Years. Read the full provision →
The argument is never about the number
The article is a single line, so what is litigated is when the ten years began. A period starts only when the right of action accrues, and until there is something to sue upon there is nothing to count. In an ordinary loan that points to the borrower's default and to whatever the documents require before the whole balance becomes due. A loan payable in instalments, an acceleration clause, or a requirement of demand before default can each move the starting date by years in either direction.
Keep the mortgage and the loan apart
The mortgage is security; the loan is the obligation it secures, and the two do not necessarily prescribe together. Article 1144 requires an action upon a written contract to be brought within ten years from the time the right of action accrues, which is the provision usually engaged by the promissory note itself. A creditor may therefore find the personal claim and the security in different positions, and a borrower who is told that everything has prescribed should ask which of the two is being spoken about.
Prescription can be interrupted, often by the borrower
Article 1155 provides that the prescription of actions is interrupted when they are filed before the court, when there is a written extrajudicial demand by the creditor, and when there is any written acknowledgment of the debt by the debtor. A letter asking for restructuring, a signed statement of account, or a part payment recorded in writing can each restart the analysis. Article 1112 makes the same point from the other direction, since prescription already obtained may be renounced expressly or tacitly.
The documents decide it
The mortgage instrument and its registration, the promissory note and its schedule of payments, the ledger showing the last payment actually made and its date, every demand letter with proof of receipt, and any letter from the borrower acknowledging the debt or asking for time. Assemble those in date order before anyone argues about ten years, because the only facts that matter — when the right of action accrued, and whether anything since has interrupted it — sit in that pile.
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 Flavio P. Bautista vs. Premiere Development Bank, G.R. No. 201881, July 15, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Rogelio Dizon vs. Philippine Veterans Bank, G.R. No. 165938, November 25, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Rural Bank of Malasiqui vs. Romeo M. Ceralde and Eduardo M. Ceralde,Jr, G.R. No. 162032, November 25,2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Herminia Cando vs. Sps. Aurora Olazo etc, G.R. No. 160741, March 22, 2007 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1144 — Ten-Year Actions
- Civil Code, Article 1155 — The Three Ways to Interrupt Prescription