Short answer. A restriction of up to twenty years is valid; anything beyond that is void under the Civil Code. Your father's will can lawfully forbid you from selling for twenty years or less. The restriction is void only to the extent it exceeds that limit.
What the law says
dispositions of the testator declaring all or part of the estate inalienable for more than twenty years are void
Civil Code, Article 870 — The Twenty-Year Limit on Inalienability. Read the full provision →
What the Civil Code allows
Article 870 of the Civil Code sets a ceiling, not a blanket prohibition. Dispositions of the testator declaring all or part of the estate inalienable for more than twenty years are void. The key words are more than twenty years. A restriction of exactly twenty years is within the limit. So your father's will can lawfully forbid you and your co-heirs from selling the inherited land for up to two decades. That kind of restraint on alienation is recognized and enforceable during the period it covers.
Why the law draws the line at twenty years
Property law generally disfavors restrictions on the free transfer of land. Perpetual inalienability would allow a testator to tie up property forever — preventing heirs from using it to pay debts, respond to financial emergencies, or adapt to changed circumstances decades after the testator's death. The Civil Code's solution is a compromise: testators retain meaningful control over how heirs deal with inherited property for a generation, but cannot bind the property indefinitely. Twenty years is the outer limit of what a will can impose without the restriction becoming void.
What happens to a restriction that exceeds the limit
If the will says something like "the land shall not be sold for thirty years," only the excess — the ten years beyond the twenty-year limit — is void. The valid portion survives. For the first twenty years, the restriction stands. After that, the heirs may sell freely because the excess is treated as if it were never written. The will is not thrown out in its entirety just because one provision overreached; only the offending part falls away. This is the standard treatment of partially void testamentary dispositions under the Civil Code.
Practical implications for you and your co-heirs
If your father's will restricts alienability for twenty years or less, you are bound by it during that period. You cannot sell, mortgage, or otherwise transfer the property against the will's terms while the restriction is in force — unless all affected parties agree otherwise and the restriction itself allows exceptions. If the period has already lapsed, or if the restriction was for more than twenty years and you are now past the twenty-year mark, the land is alienable. In either case, the will's other provisions — who inherits what, in what shares — remain in effect independently of the inalienability clause.
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.
- Hilarion, Jr. and Enrico Orendain, represented by Fe Orendain vs. Trusteeship of the Estate of Doña Margarita Rodriquez, G.R. No. 168660, June 30, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →