Dear Atty. Duran-Schulze,
I inherited a land title from one of my family members, but upon further investigation, it has an annotation of uncancelled mortgage with one of my family’s friends. Although the encumbrances were carried over through the years, I am worried that if I decide to sell the property, this will be one of the complications I have to go through. Can you advise me on this matter?
Dear Moira,
Pursuant to Section 62 of Presidential Decree 1529:
A mortgage on registered land may be discharged or canceled by means of an instrument executed by the mortgage in a form sufficient in law, which shall be filed with the Register of Deeds who shall make the appropriate memorandum upon the certificate of title.
This means that the annotation of the mortgage on the title will remain until such time that the mortgagor fully satisfies the obligation as set forth in the agreement indicated on the Deed of the Mortgage, and can only be canceled or discharged by another instrument executed by the mortgage.
Since the bank is not privy to the mortgage executed by its predecessors, and might no longer have any documents on file stating that the obligations have been paid, your recourse is to file for the cancellation of the mortgage before the Regional Trial Court. You must have proof that the mortgage has already been paid.
You will have to implead the Bank and the Register of Deeds that issued the land title, as this is an adversarial issue that needs to be tried by the proper court.
Do you have any further questions that need to be addressed? Talk to our team at Duran & Duran-Schulze Law to know more.
You may reach us at (+632) 8478 5826 or email info@duranschulze.com for more information.