Text of the provision
Art. 155. The family home shall be exempt from execution, forced sale or attachment except:
(1) For nonpayment of taxes;
(2) For debts incurred prior to the constitution of the family home;
(3) For debts secured by mortgages on the premises before or after such constitution; and
(4) For debts due to laborers, mechanics, architects, builders, materialmen and others who have rendered service or furnished material for the construction of the building.
(243a)
Family Code of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 209, approved July 6, 1987. The Code took effect on August 3, 1988 (Republic v. Orbecido III, G.R. No. 154380, October 5, 2005). Reproduced in full.
What this article means
The exemption in Article 153 is powerful but not absolute. Against four kinds of debt the family home can still be taken:
- Unpaid taxes on the property;
- debts that already existed before the home was constituted;
- debts secured by a mortgage on the premises (whether the mortgage came before or after constitution); and
- debts owed to the workers and suppliers who built the house — laborers, mechanics, architects, builders, materialmen.
The thread is fairness: the home cannot be used to escape taxes, pre-existing creditors, a mortgage the owner voluntarily gave, or the very people whose labor and materials made the house exist.
Related provisions
- Article 153 — the exemption these are exceptions to.
- Article 160 — execution by a creditor when the home exceeds its value limit.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on Article 155 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.