Short answer. No, unless the will says otherwise. Article 934 obliges the estate to pay a recoverable debt secured by a mortgage on the property devised, whether the mortgage was created before or after the will was made. You receive the house free of that loan, though other charges on it pass to you.
What the law says
If the testator should bequeath or devise something pledged or mortgaged to secure a recoverable debt before the execution of the will, the estate is obliged to pay the debt, unless the contrary intention appears.
Civil Code, Article 934 — Pledged or Mortgaged Property. Read the full provision →
The estate clears the loan, not you
The presumption is that a testator who leaves you a house means you to have the house, not a house and a debt. So the burden falls on the estate: it pays off the secured obligation and you take the property. The article then adds that the same rule applies when the thing is pledged or mortgaged after the execution of the will, which closes the argument that a mortgage taken out later somehow signalled a change of mind. Timing makes no difference; the estate answers for the debt either way.
Unless the contrary intention appears
The rule can be displaced by the will itself. A testator is free to leave a property expressly subject to its mortgage, and where he says so the devisee takes it with the loan attached. What is required is an intention appearing from the document, not a family understanding that he had always meant the debt to follow the house. Where the will is silent, silence works in your favour — the default is that the estate pays, and whoever says otherwise has to point to language in the will that says it.
Other charges do come with the property
The last sentence draws an important line: any other charge, perpetual or temporary, with which the thing bequeathed is burdened, passes with it to the legatee or devisee. A right of way across the land, a usufruct in favour of someone else, a lease with years left to run, restrictions annotated on the title — these are not debts the estate can settle by writing a cheque, and they run with the property. So the relief you get is confined to secured monetary obligations. Everything else is inherited as it stands.
Get the title and the loan documents
Two documents settle almost all of this. The certificate of title, with its annotations, shows what is actually registered against the house — the mortgage, and any easement, lease or restriction that will pass to you with it. The loan documents show what is still owed and whether the obligation is genuinely a recoverable debt of your father's rather than someone else's borrowing secured on his property, which is a different case. Read the will's own words on the devise alongside them before assuming either result.
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.
- Raquel Estipona (Lelandlord E. Sto. Domingo) and Sps. Alberto Co and Lulu Co, G.R. No. 207407, September 29, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 934 — Pledged or Mortgaged Property
- Civil Code, Article 950 — Order of Payment When the Estate Falls Short