Short answer. Yes. Article 155 of the Family Code lists nonpayment of taxes as one of the exceptions to the family home's exemption from execution, forced sale, or attachment. Unlike ordinary debts, unpaid real property taxes on the home itself can still lead to its forced sale, because the exemption never covered tax delinquency in the first place.
What the law says
The family home shall be exempt from execution, forced sale or attachment except: (1) For nonpayment of taxes
Family Code, Article 155 — Debts That Defeat the Exemption. Read the full provision →
The exemption was never absolute
The family home enjoys real protection from creditors, but Article 155 makes clear that protection has limits. It states that the family home shall be exempt from execution, forced sale or attachment except: (1) For nonpayment of taxes. So the general rule shielding the family home from ordinary money judgments does not extend to tax delinquency. A family cannot invoke the exemption to stop the government from collecting real property taxes on the very home the exemption is meant to protect, because the law carved this exception out from the start rather than treating it as a later erosion of the protection.
Why taxes are treated differently from private debts
Ordinary creditors extend credit voluntarily and can price in the risk that a debtor's family home is off-limits to collection. Real property taxes work differently: they are a recurring public obligation tied to the property itself, owed regardless of the owner's other debts, and funding local government functions that benefit the community, including the family living in the home. Article 155 also excepts debts incurred before the home was constituted, debts secured by mortgages on the premises, and debts owed to laborers and suppliers who built the house, which shows the exemption was drafted to yield to specific, identifiable obligations rather than to shield the home from every claim without exception.
What this means in practice for a delinquent family
If real estate taxes on the family home go unpaid, the family cannot rely on the family home exemption as a defense against collection efforts directed at that property. The exemption remains fully available against other kinds of creditors seeking to reach the home for unrelated debts, but it offers no shelter here. Families facing tax delinquency on a family home should treat the arrears as a direct threat to the home itself, since none of the ordinary protections built around family home status apply to this particular exception under the law.
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.
- Mary Josephine Gomez et al., vs. Roel Sta. Ines, et al, G.R. No. 132537, October 14, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Urduja Ortiz-Aquino vs. Letecia Ortillo, Lisette Ortillo, And Sheriff Of The Office Of The Provincial Sheriff Of Lingayen, Pangasinan, G.R. No. 257235, November 8, 2023 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Cesar D. Taruc vs. Angelina D. Maximo, Maricel Buenaventura, George Jordan, and Jennifer Burgos, G.R. No. 227728, September 28, 2022 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Jose E. Honrado vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 166333, November 25, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →