Short answer. Under Article 1671 of the Civil Code, continuing to enjoy the rented thing after the lease expires, over the lessor's objection, makes you a possessor in bad faith. That changes your legal position from a tenant under a running lease to someone responsible for the consequences the law attaches to bad-faith possession.
What the law says
If the lessee continues enjoying the thing after the expiration of the contract, over the lessor's objection, the former shall be subject to the responsibilities of a possessor in bad faith.
Civil Code, Article 1671 — Continued Possession Over Objection. Read the full provision →
The rule and the two conditions it depends on
Article 1671 sets out the consequence in a single sentence: if the lessee continues enjoying the thing after the expiration of the contract, over the lessor's objection, the former shall be subject to the responsibilities of a possessor in bad faith. Two things have to be true together: the lease contract has to have already expired, and you have to be staying over the lessor's objection — meaning the landlord has actually objected to your continued occupation, not merely allowed the arrangement to drift on without comment.
Why the objection is the pivotal fact
The landlord's objection is what changes your status under this article. Continuing to occupy a rental after expiration, without any objection from the landlord, is a different situation the Code treats separately from what Article 1671 describes. It is specifically the combination of an expired contract and an actual, existing objection from the lessor that triggers this article's consequence — silence or apparent tolerance from the landlord does not put you in the position this article describes.
What being treated as a possessor in bad faith changes
Article 1671 does not itself list out every consequence that follows from being a possessor in bad faith — it points to that status as the framework that now governs you, rather than the tenant protections that applied while the lease was in force. Being a possessor in bad faith is a meaningfully different legal position from being a tenant under a running contract, and it carries responsibilities the article treats as separate from, and generally heavier than, those of an ordinary lessee.
What this means once your lease has ended
If your lease has expired and your landlord has made an objection known to your continued stay, Article 1671 is the provision that reclassifies your situation from that point forward. The practical takeaway is that an expired lease plus a clear landlord objection is not a status quo you can simply continue to occupy without consequence — this article marks that combination as the trigger for a materially different, and more exposed, legal position than the one you had while the lease was still running.
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.
- Hubert Nuñez vs. SLTEAS Phoenix Solutions, Inc, G.R. No. 180542, April 12, 2010 — read the decision on LawPhil →