Short answer. You have six months to claim your trees. Under Article 460 of the Civil Code, trees uprooted and carried by floodwaters become the property of whoever owns the land they land on if the original owner does not claim them within six months.
What the law says
Trees uprooted and carried away by the current of the waters belong to the owner of the land upon which they may be cast, if the owners do not claim them within six months.
Civil Code, Article 460 — Uprooted Trees. Read the full provision →
The six-month window Article 460 sets
When floodwaters sweep trees off one property and deposit them on another, Article 460 of the Civil Code determines what happens to them. The original owner does not permanently lose the trees just because they ended up somewhere else. But the right to reclaim them is time-limited: if the original owner does not claim the trees within six months, they become the property of the landowner on whose land they were cast. Six months from the time of deposit — not from when you learned about it, not from the end of the flood season.
What claiming the trees requires
The article does not simply say you can take the trees back by showing up. If you claim them, you must pay the expenses incurred in gathering them or putting them in a safe place. The landowner who took steps to collect or secure the trees that washed in is entitled to reimbursement as the price of your reclaiming them. If the landowner did nothing with the trees, that question may be moot — but if they gathered, stacked, secured, or stored the trees, those costs are yours to bear when you assert your ownership.
After six months, ownership shifts permanently
The transition in ownership at six months is not partial or contingent — it is complete. Once the period expires without a claim, the trees belong to the landowner as fully as if they had always been theirs. The original owner cannot come forward after that point and demand the trees back or seek compensation for them. The six-month rule creates certainty for the landowner, who would otherwise hold someone else's property indefinitely without knowing when or whether the owner would return. For the original owner, the rule is a deadline that must be taken seriously.
Practical steps after losing trees to a flood
If a flood has swept away valuable trees — timber, fruit trees, commercial wood — the first step is to find out where they ended up. This may require asking neighbors, barangay officials, or conducting a site visit along the watercourse. Once you locate them, communicate your claim to the landowner promptly and be prepared to reimburse them for any gathering or storage costs they incurred. Documenting the trees as yours before the flood — photographs, planting records, inventory — will support your claim if the landowner disputes ownership. Six months passes faster than most people expect when there are properties to inspect and negotiations to conduct.
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.
- The Heirs of Alfredo Cullado, namely: Lolita Cullado, et al. vs. Dominic V. Gutierrez, G.R. No. 212938, July 30, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →