Short answer. Article 1657 of the Civil Code lists three obligations: pay the rent according to the agreed terms, use the property as a diligent father of a family for the purpose stipulated, and pay the expenses for the deed of lease. These are the baseline duties a lessee owes regardless of what else the lease adds.
What the law says
The lessee is obliged: (1) To pay the price of the lease according to the terms stipulated; (2) To use the thing leased as a diligent father of a family, devoting it to the use stipulated; and in the absence of stipulation, to that which may be inferred from the nature of the thing leased, according to the custom of the place; (3) To pay expenses for the deed of lease.
Civil Code, Article 1657 — Obligations of the Lessee. Read the full provision →
Paying the rent as agreed
The first obligation Article 1657 lists is straightforward: to pay the price of the lease according to the terms stipulated. Your obligation is measured against whatever your specific lease actually provides for amount, timing, and manner of payment — the article ties the duty directly to the stipulated terms rather than setting a generic payment rule of its own.
Using the property as a diligent father of a family
The second obligation is about how you use the property: to use the thing leased as a diligent father of a family, devoting it to the use stipulated; and in the absence of stipulation, to that which may be inferred from the nature of the thing leased, according to the custom of the place. If your lease says what the property is for, you are bound to that stipulated use. If it does not say, the article falls back on what can reasonably be inferred from the kind of property it is and how similar property is customarily used in that locality.
Paying the expenses for the deed of lease
The third obligation is narrower and easy to overlook: to pay expenses for the deed of lease. This places the cost of the lease document itself on the lessee, as a distinct obligation from the rent. It is a specific, limited duty rather than a general cost-sharing rule for everything connected to the tenancy, and it exists as its own line item alongside the other two, not as part of the monthly rent calculation.
What this list does not cover
Article 1657 sets out these three obligations specifically; it does not itself address other tenant duties that might come up during a lease, such as how the property must be returned when the lease ends or responsibility for damage during the tenancy. Those questions are handled by other provisions, so this article should be read as the baseline obligations it names, not as the full set of everything a tenant might owe under a lease.
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.
- Efren S. Quesada, et al. vs. Bonanza Restaurants, Inc, G.R. No. 207500, November 14, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Victoria N. Racelis vs. Spouses Germil Javier and Rebecca Javier, G.R. No. 189609, January 29, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →