Innovative Urban Tenure in the Philippines
4.7 Forms of land and housing tenure available to the urban poor Under the law, a range of housing tenure forms is available to the urban poor. Setting aside the issues of affordability and tedious titling and registration procedures, legal tenure is accessible to the Filipino urban poor. Freehold or full ownership with a title is the highest form of tenure. This form of tenure has been acquired by former informal settlers who have either become beneficiaries of resettlement programmes and the CMP, and have paid for their housing loans in full; or have directly bought land from a landowner through a negotiated purchase. With full ownership comes the right to sell the land and/or housing unit. Amortizing owners under the CMP or of resettlement lots and/or housing units enjoy secure tenure without the right to sell the subject lot or housing unit. This restriction is contained in legally binding contracts. But while they cannot sell their units/lots, amortizing owners cannot be evicted and therefore virtually enjoy full tenure security. While there are laws that define the rights of renters and rent control laws that regulate rent increases, renters/tenants in informal settlements hardly have any use for them.31 Renters of informally constructed dwellings are only as secure insofar as the rented structures are protected from demolition. There are usually no written contracts that bind the owners of these informal dwellings to the agreements they make with their renters. Rental agreements in the lower segment of the rental market are usually only verbal, although acknowledgement receipts for rent paid are often given to the tenant by the landlord, as proof of payment. The Civil Code of the Philippines (Articles 1654-1688) provides the general guidelines governing the lease of urban and rural lands. The Rent Control Act of 2009, on the other hand, provides for more specific regulations on rent increases for residential units with monthly rent not exceeding Php10,000 (approximately US$217) in Metro Manila and Php5,000 (approximately US$108) elsewhere. Lease arrangements are allowed by law on land owned by private individuals or by government. In practice, there are few examples of government lands leased either to individual families or to community associations for housing purposes. More common are leases of government land for business or industrial use. There are also few examples of public rental housing in the Philippines. In these situations, the general rules contained in the Civil Code and the specific regulations in the Rent Control Law would also apply. More recently, usufruct arrangements have been adopted as an alternative form of tenure for the purpose of making legal housing more affordable to the urban poor. While usufruct, as defined in Philippine law (specifically the Civil Code of the Philippines (Republic Act 386) Title VI Articles 562612), was, in the past, primarily and customarily applied in the agricultural and industrial settings, it is now being appropriated for use in the residential context. 31 By law, eviction of a tenant is allowed only for the following reasons: 1) non-payment of rent for three months, 2) subleasing of the unit without the express consent of the owner, 3) the landlord’s needing the property for personal use (the tenant must be given three months’ notice), and 4) the landlord’s needing to make repairs (the ejected tenant, however, has the right of first refusal where renting the said unit after it has been repaired is concerned).
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Renters of informally constructed dwellings are only as secure insofar as the rented structures are protected from demolition.
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