Bohol land wanted

all i hear from my pinay wife is they all shaft each other all the time..so why should this be any different ?

I do not expect any praise from Ozz being himself a fellow Scotsman and I give no more than is expected of fellow Haggis Basher, in fact it would almost be demeaning for him to do so, after all, of the 4 nations that make up the UK surely we are the ones with the most smarts? think of the the great Inventions and Discoveries we have Created all for the benefit of mankind and that even includes you Englishmen. You have to admit we have done no bad for a wee nation of only 5 million.

INSIDE ENGLAND TODAY

This is a time for national pride and this week we are giving ourselves a pat on the back, by depicting a day in the life of an Englishman.

He rises in the morning and has a typical English breakfast of toast and marmalade (invented by Mrs Keiller of Dundee). He slips on his national costume, a soiled raincoat (patented by Charles Macintosh, a Glasgow chemist) and walks over the Kirkcaldy linoleum in his hall out into an English lane (surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr).

He climbs aboard an English bus (which runs on pneumatic tyres invented by John Dunlop of Dreghorn), and on the way to the station he lights an English cigarette (first manufactured by Robert Gloag of Perth).

The English train which takes him up to Town works on a principle devised by James Watt of Greenock.

At the office he opens the mail (the adhesive stamp was invented by Chalmers of Dundee) answers the telephone (invented by Alexander Graham Bell even answers his boss (sure to be another Scot).

In the evening, his wife is preparing his national dish - the roast beef of Old England (Buchan beef). He feels very patriotic, and whistle "Ye Mariners of England" (by Thomas Campbell of Glasgow) for roast beef is one of the revered institutions (like the Crown which has rested on a Scottish head since 1603).

After dinner there follows a scene of typical English domestic bliss. Young Albert goes off to the Boys Brigade (founded by Sir William Smith in Glasgow). Young Ted goes out to the Scouts (the present Chief Scout is Sir Hector McLean of Duart) while little Ethel plays on her bicycle (invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Dumfriesshire blacksmith). Mum is in the kitchen steeping the wash in bleach (a Scottish invention) while Dad watches Television (invented by John Logie Baird of Helensburgh).

After the kids come home Dad supervises the homework. The maths jotters will be full of logarithms (invented by John Napier of Edinburgh). The English course is stuffed with books like "Treasure Island" (Robert Louis Stevenson) and Robinson Crusoe (based on the life of Alexander Selkirk of Largo). He may even discover that the Flower of English Chivalry, King Arthur, was a Scotsman, as were all his knights, and the English history book will dwell on political economy (fathered by Adam Smith of Glasgow).

To get away from the Scots, Dad will pick up the Bible, but the first name is that of a Scot (James VI, who authorised the translation).

If he takes to drink, we supply the best in the world. If he tries to put his head in the oven , coal gas was discovered by William Murdoch of Ayrshire. So he takes a rifle and tries to blow his brains out (the breech loading was invented by a Scot).

Anyway, if he survives they’ll put him on a table and pump him full of penicillin (discovered by Sir Andrew Fleming of Darvel) give him an anaesthetic (by courtesy of Sir James Young Simpson of Bathgate) and perform an operation (antiseptic surgery was pioneered at Glasgow Infirmary).

The first thing he would hear on awakening would be the voice of the Scottish surgeon telling him he was as safe as the Bank of England (founded by William Paterson of Dumfries).

His only hope is that he would receive a few pints of good Scots blood and thus claim kinship with the race, or else emigrate and join them.

you missed out on the greatest invention of all---

If it was me @CampelloChris I wouldn't do it without seeing it in person and checking the survey at least confirmed I was buying what I thought I was buying.

I'd also want some assurance the guy/gal selling it was the owner... etc etc.

What difference is it going to make if you delay the purchase by 6 months?

Will they sell it to someone else - how many cash buyers do you think there are out there?

Filipino's normally pay instalments...

If you're not 100%, which you're not, put the brakes on it.

I have told Melody's Kuya that unless every single document is there, and notarised, to refuse to continue, and then postpone the meeting until we are there in March.

I've said to him not to buckle under pressure, and to take all the time he feels is necessary in order to scrutinise the documentation.

I've asked him to make sure that every document pertaining to the sale is photocopied PRIOR to him going to the bank.

I don't mind him walking away from the deal. The cash is safe in his bank. We will not be more that a couple of hundred pounds out of pocket - the cost of having him there, and the survey fee.

I've also requested of the Lawyer that he indemnify us over the amount of tax due - this cannot really deviate much as the CGT is fixed at 6% of the value of the lot, which is 60,000 There is also Basic Real Property Tax, which is levied at 1% or 10,000 in our case. I want to be sure that there are no other taxes that the seller would normally be expected to pay, but once the land is in our hands, we would then cop for. Apparently he has another document from the BIR which itemises each of the taxes due in order for them to be satisfied and issue the Certificate of Authority to Change Title.

Seriously, this lawyer doesn't make me feel that I can trust him. Or maybe I'm being overly cautious and paranoid, and maybe even a little xenophobic.

In any event, I want notarised copies of every document that forms part of the sale.

They'd better have all their ducks in a row because our man is instructed that unless he would hand over his own money on such a transaction, not to do so with ours.

He is currently billeted in a crappy hotel across the road from the bank, and around the corner from the lawyer's offices. Despite the proximity, I don't feel that a sixty-two year old would be able to defend himself walking along the road with a bag full of money, and we have requested that everyone troops to the bank upon agreement, and that the handover is conducted in one of the bank's side rooms.

Trying to cover all the bases here

Well it's a bit late in the day, but I think the penny has finally dropped with me.

The seller doesn't have their name on the title
The father's name is still on the title
The four sons who have inherited this land cannot pay the tax due
Therefore, they cannot change the name on the title.
They're trying to sell it 'under the table'
They're trying to get the cash and scarper, leaving us in the lurch with land that they had no right to sell, and quite possibly, the title could not be transferred to us.

The law states that the estate must be settled prior to the ownership of any of the estate being allocated.
That means the taxes need to be paid to the BIR, and any debts paid
Then the Certificate of Authorisation to Transfer Title could be issued by the BIR
The Registry of Deeds would produce (eventually) a new title with the names of the FOUR sons

Then the process starts again
They need to obtain a certificate to show that the tax is up to date
Then provide us with a Deed of Adjudication which confirms that they and they alone have a say in the disposal of the land
An Absolute Deed of Sale is drawn up
Everything is notarised
We hand over the money
They hand over the Title and the BIR document
We take it all to the Registry of Deeds
They provide us (eventually) with a new Title Deed with our names on it.

We are at an impasse

Our representative will attend the meeting today. He will see that the paperwork is not correct. He will refuse to continue, but offer a workable solution.

We will require the Deed of Adjudication, plus a notarised, binding agreement to sell to us at a price as previously agreed, less the following;
We will 'lend' the seller the CGT and the DST (Documentary Stamp Tax)
We (our lawyer) will hold the BIR certificate, they the Title.
Both will then meet at the Registry of Deeds
Documentation will be submitted and a new title issued after a period of time

When we meet with the lawyer in March, assuming the new Title is available, we will pay the balance, after obtaining a new up-to-date BIR certificate and deducting any further tax (if any)
Then we go to the registry of Deeds and process the Title to ourselves.

I can sympathise with the seller. They don't have any funds with which to lift themselves out of their situation. We are going to try to help tomorrow, and if they accept, we will hold them to the contract, and they will finally be rid of the land and have their money.

Agents eh... this is quite common in the Phils... so he/she thought you might just go along with it...

There's a good explanation here @CampelloChris :

The Transfer of Inherited Land in the Philippines

Unfortunately, this can lead to other problems like the land being mortgaged either prior to death or more likely by one of the inheritors after death... Someone else popping up later with a Deed of Sale... is the wife dead too? Did she get her share?

FYFI, my wifes family own or should own probably 8-10 parcels/lots of land... the only one that has clean title and no problems is the large lot that an Uncle claims was gifted to him for a bottle of coke when their father was on his death bed - that one was quickly registered in the Uncle's name

All the others are fc'kd ... have issues - a lot of em caused by unscrupulous local agents/barangay captains etc.

Hardly anything runs smoothly over here, if anything at all. Corruption being the number one. 3rd world country and always will be.

I'm thinking why not rent the land, 50 year lease and if the business goes bad......

There's a need for a mindset alteration in the provinces, that's for sure. As long as they continue to do things the 'Filipino way' not much will change, and no improvement will be seen.

UPDATE:

We were constantly woken throughout last night, being asked for bits of information, our opinion on how things were being done, and for updates throughout.

Somehow, despite everything I've poured out over the past couple of days, we appear to be the new owners of the lot.

All four signatories turned up - (it was payday - why wouldn't they?)
They all signed the Deed of Adjudication to agree to the sale.
They all signed to Deed of Absolute Sale
The fabled survey document turned up
The confirmations of the CGT and DST were there
The original Title was produced
They were paid the 930,000 pesos.
At that point, I think the brothers had their original plan changed. Each of them was apparently accompanied by their significant other, so the brothers' celebration was ruined.

Our next step will be to submit the Capital Gains Tax with the BIR within the next thirty days. After that, as I understand it, we can submit all the documentation together with the 30,000 pesos for the transfer of title etc to the municipality Registry of Deeds, and sometime in the future, the document will be processed.

But we are now the owners, for better or worse, richer or poorer, of the aforementioned 3598m2 of Bohol.

I had to back down and let the Filipino Way (provincial edition) run its course. But the purchase and my marriage remain intact as a consequence of letting it happen. It was a lesson that I think will stand me in good stead over the coming years, as we embark on this long journey.

Many thanks to those who commented. I tend to have agreed wholeheartedly with the calls for caution and mistrust, but my loving wife was almost at the stage of biting her arms in frustration at my uncharacteristic reluctance. I'm usually positive and gung-ho (to a fault). I figured that it was either going to happen, or it was going to go tits-up, but at the end of it all, it wasn't an irreplaceable amount of money involved, and we had insisted on, as much as possible, the protocols being followed. I think the Pinoys kind of met us half way on that.

One thing though - Every single reference to the taxes due on the land told me that all the taxes must be brought up to date, and a Certificate of Authority to Transfer Title would be needed in order to complete the sale.

And yet, when I checked this on the BIR website, they say that within 30 days of the sale of the property, the tax must be paid, the receipt taken to the relevant BIR office, and the Certificate would then be issued.

This was the epiphany that allowed me to relax my guard and let it all happen. My defensiveness was based on all the websites which claim that the tax must be brought up to date before the sale would be allowed.

I guess we will find out for sure in the next 30 days!

This is what we bought

do you get the motorbike ?

Given the terrain, he'll be needing one of these:

Congrats @CampelloChris

Yup. It's not the UK and sometimes you have to trust your wife, go along with it and hope it turns out ok.

Don't forget to put up some kind of fence/wall (barbed wire, machine gun turrets ) or something to tell everyone it's yours and you know where the boundaries are before your neighbours start encroaching.

Sounds ff'ing ridiculous but there's always one Filipino who wants to try it on... they'll pull out your "mohons" and move them if you're not around and/or you haven't put a fence/wall around it.

Had that done to my land, my right of way was three meters now 2 .50 and that was with another foreigner not his fault but the surveyor, had words with the surveyor but Pinoys are never wrong.

I never did get the Motorbike? but what I did get was the soothing sound of the Karaoke in the background likely the true sound is at a greater volume than a small phone mike can pick up, you would need to be there in person to really appreciate it?

Almost 200 students in Bohol ‘possessed’ by evil spirits

to the provinces...

On a more positive note:

Bohol named PH’s first Unesco ‘global geopark’

I did see the lad peeing onto my land. The Karaoke just goes to reinforce my opinion that no, the Filipinos are not, as I had been told, all good singers. My wife can carry a tune, but most of them sound like a cat in a tumble drier.

I'm having a little scooter. Probably something around 125cc, which is strong enough to lug my fat ass up the hills, fast enough to evade at least some of the troublesome Pinoy drivers, and frugal enough for my meagre UK state pension to support.

We have a later video, and all you can hear is a dog that seems to be rather miffed at something.

I'm hoping that my hearing starts to fade in my later years. I've never experienced peace and quiet when outside in the Philippines. Someone or something is always making an infernal racket.

Roll on March when we actually get to walk on our land for the first time. I'm just hoping I can make it to the top without busting a blood vessel. Working on the fitness and fatness. I'm not planning to kick the bucket quite yet.

FYI, here's the floor plan of the house. The back of it will actually face the view. The front will face into the hillside, looking uphill in a southerly direction. The house will be sat on top of the garages, which will be built into the hillside, entirely of concrete. It will mean that the entrance to the house will still be at ground level, even though it's elevated, because of the slope of the land. The garages will be set back from the road to allow for a safe exit from them, rather than reversing out, straight onto the road. The rear deck of the house will overhang the front building line of the garages, and will be supported by columns. The external wall of the house will therefore be supported by the front wall of the garage.



The bedroom immediately to the left of the entrance hallway will become the office as we don't need three bedrooms, and in my opinion, the less bedrooms available, the less freeloading family members would turn up! There is a pool drawn on the plan, but that just isn't going to happen. Also, it's probably going to be that the carport and driveway aren't in that position. There will probably be a wraparound verandah to cast shade onto the walls & windows and surround the house with cooler air, even at the risk of typhoon damage. I'm hoping to incorporate some design features to help mitigate those risks, at least to some extent

I was considering a golf cart or a quad bike.

Or it might appear a bit like this....