You should have warned me!

Once upon a time, a man happily sat on a property he inherited: agricultural land.

He never paid the real property tax (RPT) since he thought he could settle it once he decided to sell the property.

One day, the owner heard that the big companies were shopping for land in the barrio where his property was located. So, he finally decided to sell the property. He procured certified copies of the title (TCT) and tax declaration (TD) in preparation for the sale.

When he got the certified copy of the TCT, he was surprised to discover his TCT was canceled and that the property was now owned by someone else!

He thought that he was a victim of land-grabbing. However, further investigation revealed that the local government (LG) auctioned his property due to non-payment of RPT. He furiously argued that he should have been warned at the very least!

The LG claimed that they sent him numerous letters. They even showed copies of these letters. But the owner didn't get any of these, so he asked where they sent them. The LG said they sent them to the address in the tax declaration–which just stated, "Rd. 34, Diliman, Quezon City."

The end.

The reason why the address wasn't precise is because, back in the day, Metro Manila was just grasslands. It was common to have an address that merely stated a general area.

Anyway, the first problem in this story is that he didn't pay the RPT. Property auctions due to non-payment of RPT are common for raw land in the provinces.

The second problem is that the owner didn't update the TCT/TD's address. Apparently, the address in these documents is a means for the government to serve letters/notices relating to the same property.

Second horror story...

If someone wanted to update the address stated in the TD (where the City Assessor supposedly sent the notices), they'd tell you to update the address in the TCT first. And if you ask the Registry of Deeds to update the owner's address in the TCT, they'll say you have to do something complicated to discourage you (like you have to wait six months to a year). In other words, people in charge think updating the owner's address is unimportant, so doing so is nearly impossible.