Short answer. Yes, in defined circumstances. Article 1590 lets a buyer suspend payment of the price where he is disturbed in the possession or ownership of the thing acquired, or has reasonable grounds to fear such disturbance, by a vindicatory action or a foreclosure of mortgage. A mere act of trespass is not enough.

What the law says

Should the vendee be disturbed in the possession or ownership of the thing acquired, or should he have reasonable grounds to fear such disturbance, by a vindicatory action or a foreclosure of mortgage, he may suspend the payment of the price until the vendor has caused the disturbance or danger to cease

Civil Code, Article 1590 — Buyer's Right to Suspend Payment. Read the full provision →

The right, and what triggers it

Article 1590 provides that Should the vendee be disturbed in the possession or ownership of the thing acquired, or should he have reasonable grounds to fear such disturbance, by a vindicatory action or a foreclosure of mortgage, he may suspend the payment of the price until the vendor has caused the disturbance or danger to cease. Two features are worth noticing. You need not wait to be actually dispossessed; reasonable grounds to fear it are enough. But the fear must be of a specific kind of threat, namely an action asserting ownership against you or a foreclosure, not general unease about the title.

Trespass does not count

The article closes by saying that a mere act of trespass shall not authorize the suspension of the payment of the price, and that line disposes of a great many attempted suspensions. Somebody occupying a corner of the lot, a neighbour who moved a fence, an informal settler who claims nothing beyond his physical presence: these are disturbances of your possession that you deal with yourself, because they do not put the title the seller gave you in question. What justifies suspension is a claim to the property itself, or a mortgagee moving to sell it out from under you.

How the seller can restart the payments

Suspension is a holding position, not a discharge. The seller ends it by causing the disturbance or danger to cease, which usually means having the adverse claim resolved or the mortgage released. The article gives him a second route as well: he may give security for the return of the price in a proper case, and once acceptable security is furnished you are expected to resume paying. So the correspondence to keep is whatever shows what he was told, when, and what he did about it, because his response decides how long the suspension can properly last.

Read your contract before you stop paying

The right can be bargained away. Article 1590 itself yields where it has been stipulated that the buyer shall be bound to make the payment notwithstanding any such contingency, and clauses to that effect appear in ordinary conveyancing forms. Stopping payment where such a clause binds you converts a defensive position into a default, and Article 1592 shows how exposed a defaulting buyer of immovable property can be once the seller makes a demand for rescission judicially or by notarial act. Get the deed read before the next instalment falls due, and notify the seller of the claim in writing.

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.