Short answer. Yes. A lease of things needs no written form in order to bind; what an unwritten arrangement lacks is a term, and Article 1687 supplies one from the way the rent is paid. Rent paid monthly makes the lease month to month, weekly makes it week to week, annual year to year.
What the law says
If the period for the lease has not been fixed, it is understood to be from year to year, if the rent agreed upon is annual; from month to month, if it is monthly; from week to week, if the rent is weekly; and from day to day, if the rent is to be paid daily.
Civil Code, Article 1687 — Term of a Lease With No Fixed Period. Read the full provision →
What the law says
the courts may fix a longer term for the lease after the lessee has occupied the premises for over one year
Civil Code, Article 1687 — Term of a Lease With No Fixed Period. Read the full provision →
Form is not what makes a lease
An oral lease is a lease. Rent handed over and accepted month after month, a room occupied with the owner's knowledge, a house rented on a handshake between relatives: all of these create the relationship, with the duties of a lessor and a lessee attached to it. What the absence of a document costs is certainty about the terms, and the term most often missing is how long the arrangement is supposed to run. Article 1687 fills that gap rather than treating the whole arrangement as nothing, which is the assumption both sides tend to walk in with.
The rent cycle becomes the term, and it cuts both ways
Where no period was fixed, it is understood to be from year to year, if the rent agreed upon is annual; from month to month, if it is monthly; from week to week, if the rent is weekly; and from day to day, if the rent is to be paid daily. Tenants read this as security and it is partly the opposite. A tenant paying monthly has a lease, but a lease that reaches a lawful end point every single month. Twenty years of monthly payments does not build a twenty-year lease; it builds two hundred and forty short ones, each expiring in turn.
The court's power to lengthen the term
The article does not leave a long-standing occupant entirely at the mercy of the calendar. Even where rent is monthly and no period was set, the courts may fix a longer term for the lease after the lessee has occupied the premises for over one year. Weekly rent carries the same power after more than six months of possession, and daily rent after more than a month. This is a judicial discretion rather than an automatic entitlement, and it is exercised on the circumstances, so a tenant relying on it is asking a court for time, not asserting a right to stay.
What to gather when nothing was signed
Because the terms live in conduct rather than in a document, the evidence of conduct is the case. Keep every receipt, deposit slip, bank transfer or message acknowledging payment, because the pattern of payment establishes both that a lease exists and what period it runs on. Note when occupation began, what was agreed about repairs and utilities, and who else witnessed the arrangement. If you are the owner, put it in writing going forward, even briefly. A short signed lease costs nothing and removes the argument that otherwise takes months to resolve.
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.
- David G. Dula vs. Dr. Restituto Maravilla, et al, G.R. No. 134267, May 9, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Leonardo S. Umale (deceased), represented by Clarissa Victoria, et al. all surnamed Umale vs. ASB Realty Corp, G.R. No. 181126, June 15, 2011 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Consolacion De Vera vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 110297, August 7, 1996 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Malayan Realty, Inc. vs. Uy Han Yong, G.R. No. 163763, November 10, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1670 — Implied New Lease (Tacita Reconduccion)
- Civil Code, Article 1673 — Grounds for Judicial Ejectment