An Expensive Lesson

Never trust someone completely just because you know them.

Our recent experience taught us that. It is one of the most expensive lessons we have learned yet.

My siblings and I acquired a portion of a large property for a few million pesos a couple of years ago. We visited the place, liked what we were shown (it was along the main highway and had an access road all the way up). A cousin and her husband recommended it. The title was in her father-in-law's name, and he approved the sale. So we made the full payment and signed a deed after the survey, but the deed registration was put on hold because the property subdivision had to be approved first.

We trusted everything would go well. After all, our first cousin was at the end of the sale.

However, during the process, a boundary dispute arose, and it took years to be resolved. We were initially told the landowner won the case, but it turned out the opposite—he lost. The claimant (boundary owner) was awarded the area we bought, and the landowner had an engineer do a relocation survey.

We only learned about it when they asked us to install the permanent boundary markers. That was when my husband and my brother realized we no longer had access to the main road. Not even a right-of-way. So they halted installing the concrete pillars and met with my cousin and her husband to discuss it.

They were assured there would be a road from the west side of the property. Adamant, they still trusted the couple's words, went back the following week and installed the mojons. They found out hundreds of square meters were a ravine. They complained afterwards when they met with the landowner (cousin's father-in-law) at the lawyer's office. They were promised they would make certain adjustments, including the access road.

However, when the blueprint came out the other day, there were no adjustments to the ravine area. The access road was nowhere too, and there was no right-of-way either. We were landlocked! Do they expect us to fly to get to the property?

I contacted my cousin to demand an explanation. She said the ravine couldn't be remedied. Okay. We take that as a loss. But what about the access road? We bought the property because we were shown a nice terrain with a specific road route.

She assured me there was one, pointing to an area that isn't even part of her father-in-law's property. When I questioned that, she said they had already discussed it with the owner. I insisted that if that was true, the blueprint must be amended to indicate it. The final deed should also state such, or we wouldn't sign.

When cornered (after a long discussion), she admitted her father-in-law had sold most of the property, and the adjoining owners refused a right-of-way. WTF! I nearly blew up. He sold most of it without setting aside or carving out a road for us who've been unjustly shoved into the inner area. I mean, why the hell did we end up with a property with no legal access, when we paid for one that had such? Even if we decide to resell it, who is crazy enough to buy it?

We felt betrayed. We were completely blindsided. We trusted them because we knew them, and that was a big mistake. What they did was an extreme breach of trust and a severe legal violation. And so, we decided to take legal action, determined to get to the bottom of it through the legal process. We hope the relationship won't go sour because of this.