Save yourself the hassle, the stress and the headache if you bought a property from someone who has applied it thru Pag-IBIG or HUDMF.
You need to have the seller sign a Special Power of Attorney that authorizes you to represent, receive/claim any documents from Pag-IBIG Fund particularly the Owner’s Duplicate Certificate of Title and the Cancellation of Mortgage upon full payment of the said property covered by Transfer/Condominium Certificate of Title.
Otherwise, the title of the property which you have paid in full will not be released to you.
Worst, the seller may claim it before you do.
Pag-IBIG is not party to your contract
You and the seller might have signed a Deed of Sale for the transaction or a Deed for the Transfer of Rights but that will not suffice for you to claim the title upon its full payment. A Special Power of Attorney that does not authorize you to claim the Certificate of Title will not be honored by Pag-IBIG when it is time to claim the title. All those other documents that you executed between you and the seller is just between the two of you. Pag-IBIG is not a party to the contract. It means that as far as Pag-IBIG is concerned, even if you, the buyer had been paying its monthly amortizations until it is fully paid, the title would still be in the name of the original borrower and once fully paid, the title will be released to the original borrower, unless you show this Special Power of Attorney authorizing you to receive such, signed by the borrower himself/herself.
The Document
This document may be obtained from any PAGIBIG Office. Together with this, is a copy of two IDs of the original borrower, with three specimen signatures, a copy of the ID of the representative or Attorney-In-Fact, (the buyer or you) and the ID of the wife or husband of the borrower with three specimen signatures if the borrower is married. This should be notarized and is presented to Pag-IBIG when claiming the title as well as when you transact with the Registry of Deeds, Assessor’s Office, Bureau of Internal Revenue and other agencies for the cancellation of the mortgage and transfer of title.
The Scenario
We think that the property is a good buy and a lucrative investment. We have the cash and we don’t have to go through the arduous process of documentation with the developer or with Pag-IBIG.
Normally, after executing the Deed of Sale or Deed of Transfer of Rights, we assume that the things have been smoothen out. We assume the balance and pay the monthly amortization religiously. With Pag-IBIG, the contract to sell with the original buyer may be as long as twenty years. By then, we have already lost track of the person who sold us the property especially if they are not related to us at all. Even the notification that the property is already fully paid is sent to the original buyer/borrower. Once the title becomes available for release, it could turn into a race between you and the seller/borrower in claiming the title. Yes, it could be.
The Experience
It’s been 20 years. The property is already fully paid. But Pag-IBIG would not release to me the title even if I have a signed document that says I am the trustee in all matters related to the property with full discretion. Even if I have all the receipts for the payments I have made. Again, Pag-IBIG is not party to our contract.
This, I totally understand. If Pag-IBIG would be involved in all the transactions affecting its mortgaged/sold properties, that spells unnecessary trouble or undue burden for them.
I need to present a Special Power of Attorney which authorizes me to claim the title of the property.
To be able to locate the person who sold us the property, (to have him sign the SPA), I enlisted the help of people who knows him. Even after getting his phone number, he wasn’t very cooperative. That is just to be expected considering that this is the least of his priority.
I was relentless and I offered to pay him for his time and effort to see me and sign the document. I don’t mind the payment, it helped him and it solved my problem. I was just lucky that I was able to find him after 15 years of living abroad and being an OFW.
While working on this issue, I had the chance to talk to some people who are in the same boat as me. They too had a hard time locating the person who sold them the property. They paid for that person’s fare, time and food just to be able to get their signature and that of his wife because the property was supposed to be conjugal. One has even lied about that the wife is already dead. But when it was presented to Registry of Deeds, they were asked to present a death certificate. When they could not present one, they had to go back again to the husband which made the matter more complicated.
The reason I am writing about this issue is for you to avoid being in the same bind as I had been. Our vacations as OFWs are very limited and we want to spend them with our loved ones instead of queuing at Pag-IBIG offices trying to resolve this issue.
If you are like me who assumed the payment of a balance of a property originally applied thru Pag-IBIG, have that person sign the (correct) SPA now, get copies of at least two IDs and have him sign the copies three times. Also, have the wife, if the seller is married, sign the same document and get a copy of her ID, too. Have the document notarized. The form is available at any Pag-IBIG offices. Only after you accomplished this should you pay in full, that is, if you haven’t paid it in full yet.
Hi, I'm Cecille. I have been an OFW in KSA for 13 long years. I have been there, done that. I'd say I was lucky because for most of those years, my family was with me. I'd like to share in this blog what makes those years worthwhile, the lessons I learned and bits and pieces of info that may pique your interest as bagong bayani.