Dear PAO,

I bought a land from Gina (deceased) in 1985. The agreement was made orally, and she just delivered to me the owner’s duplicate copy of the title. I have been in peaceful possession of the said property ever since and have been religiously paying the corresponding real property tax. When Gina died, her heirs claimed that the oral sale of her land to me was void because of the simple reason that the transaction was not made in writing. Is the oral sale of land between me and Gina void?

Zender

Dear Zender,

There is already a perfected contract of sale of land if the contracting parties have agreed as to the object and price thereof. This is in consonance with Article 1475 of the New Civil Code of the Philippines which states that:

“The contract of sale is perfected at the moment there is a meeting of minds upon the thing which is the object of the contract and upon the price. xxx”.

The oral sale of land is still valid because of the provision of Article 1356 of the same code which provides that:

“Contracts shall be obligatory, in whatever form they may have been entered into, provided all the essential requisites for their validity are present. However, when the law requires that a contract be in some form in order that it may be valid or enforceable, or that a contract be proved in a certain way, that requirement is absolute and indispensable. In such cases, the right of the parties stated in the following article cannot be exercised.”

The purpose of requiring a certain contract to be in writing and its effect as to its validity were fully explained in the case of Alido v. Campano, GR 226065, July 29, 2019, where the Supreme Court speaking through Associate Justice Jose Reyes Jr., stated that:

“The Statute Frauds embodied in Article 1403, paragraph (2), of the Civil Code requires certain contracts enumerated therein to be evidenced by some note or memorandum in order to be enforceable. The term “Statute of Frauds” is descriptive of statutes which require certain classes of contracts to be in writing. The Statute does not deprive the parties of the right to contract with respect to the matters therein involved, but merely regulates the formalities of the contract necessary to render it enforceable. Evidence of the agreement cannot be received without the writing or a secondary evidence of its contents.

“The Statute, however, simply provides the method by which the contracts enumerated therein may be proved but does not declare them invalid because they are not reduced to writing. By law, contracts are obligatory in whatever form they may have been entered into, provided all the essential requisites for their validity are present. However, when the law requires that a contract be in some form in order that it may be valid or enforceable, or that a contract be proved in a certain way, that requirement is absolute and indispensable. Consequently, the effect of non-compliance with the requirement of the Statute is simply that no action can be enforced unless the requirement is complied with. Clearly, the form required is for evidentiary purposes only. Hence, if the parties permit a contract to be proved, without any objection, it is then just as binding as if the Statute has been complied with.”

Applying the above-cited decision in your situation, there was a perfected sale of land between you and Gina because there was a meeting of the minds as to the object and price. In fact, the contract was even fully enforced and executed when you paid the selling price and Gina delivered the title as well as possession of the property to you. As explained in the Alido case, the requirement that the contract involving sale of land must be in writing under Article 1403 of the New Civil Code is for evidentiary purposes only and has nothing to do with the validity of the sale. Hence, your peaceful possession of the property will not be disturbed on the mere basis that the transaction was made in writing.

We hope that we were able to answer your queries. This advice is based solely on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Our opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated.