Short answer. Yes. The Civil Code provides that every obligation whose performance does not depend upon a future or uncertain event is demandable at once. An obligation with no suspensive condition and no period is called a pure obligation, and it is immediately enforceable from the moment it was created.

What the law says

Every obligation whose performance does not depend upon a future or uncertain event, or upon a past event unknown to the parties, is demandable at once. Every obligation which contains a resolutory condition shall also be demandable, without prejudice to the effects of the happening of the event.

Civil Code, Article 1179 — Pure Obligations; Resolutory Conditions. Read the full provision →

What a pure obligation is

Article 1179 of the Civil Code states: Every obligation whose performance does not depend upon a future or uncertain event, or upon a past event unknown to the parties, is demandable at once. An obligation is pure when there is nothing that must happen first before it can be enforced — no condition to be fulfilled, no date to arrive, no event to occur. If you and the other party simply agreed that something would be done, with no qualifications or triggers attached, you have a pure obligation. You can demand performance from the moment the obligation was created.

What makes an obligation conditional rather than pure

The contrast to a pure obligation is a conditional obligation — one whose performance depends on a future or uncertain event (a suspensive condition). If the other party only has to perform once a specific event occurs — once the property is registered, once a payment from a third party is received, once a building permit is issued — that event must happen before you can demand performance. Article 1179 also mentions a third type: an obligation dependent on a past event unknown to the parties. If the obligation rests on whether something already happened, but neither party knew about it when they agreed, it is also treated as conditional until the truth of that event becomes known.

Obligations with a resolutory condition

Article 1179 also addresses obligations with a resolutory condition. Unlike a suspensive condition, which must happen before performance is owed, a resolutory condition does not delay performance — it can end the obligation if it occurs later. The article states that every obligation which contains a resolutory condition shall also be demandable, without prejudice to the effects of the happening of the event. This means you can demand performance immediately even if the obligation might be extinguished in the future if the resolutory condition occurs. The obligation is live and enforceable now; what the resolutory condition does is end it prospectively if it materializes.

What this means for your agreement

If your agreement imposes an obligation with no suspensive condition and no deadline for performance, that obligation is demandable at once — right now, as of the moment it was made. The debtor cannot argue that you have to wait for any particular event or time to pass before you can demand compliance. That said, even when an obligation is immediately demandable, other rules about how demand must be made — such as whether a formal written demand is needed to put the debtor in default — may still apply and affect when interest or other consequences of non-performance begin to run. Those procedural requirements do not change the fact that the obligation itself is immediately enforceable.

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.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.