I had a friend who bought a property seven or eight years ago. It was offered to him by a broker. He liked the property; he had seen it oftentimes because it was located along the way to his house.
He paid P27 million to the couple who, the broker claimed, were the owners. But before that, he asked his lawyer to conduct due diligence. The attorney went to the Register of Deeds and was shown the record of the certificate of title that was presented by the broker. He told my friend that the title was clean.
The day after he paid for the lot by check, another friend, also a broker, asked him if the rumor was true that he had bought the property. He said yes. What followed floored him: his broker friend told him that the property was owned by another, he was sure of it.
Since the information was relayed to him late in the afternoon, he went to the bank only the following day, one of the first clients to get in when the bank’s door opened. He wanted to stop payment of his check, he told a bank officer.
After getting the details, the bank officer checked the records of his account and that of the sellers. He came back with more devastating news: the check had been encashed and the payees had emptied their bank account.
He hired another lawyer to conduct further inquiry with the office of the Register of Deeds. It turned out that there were two titles for the same lot: one issued decades earlier in the name of the real owner and possessor, and a new one issued in the name of the sellers.
How did that happen? It turned out that while the regular Register of Deeds was abroad, the officer-in-charge issued the new title on the basis of a letter-request from the couple without even bothering to cancel the old title!
My friend filed a criminal case against the sellers. The prosecutor’s office dismissed it. He filed a civil case and won. The decision is on appeal. I wonder if there would still be anything left of the P27 million when the decision becomes final and executory. Why, the couple must have spent every centavo already.
As for the officer-in-charge who issued the second title, a warrant of arrest was issued against him in another case. I am not sure if he has been arrested, though.
Why am I writing this? Because I read today that the National Bureau of Investigation has arrested five suspects in another fake title transaction. What happened to my friend is still happening.
Buyer, beware.