The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that land owners who are registered on the certificates of title, not those found on tax declarations, should be notified in warrants of levy for non- payment of taxes, otherwise the subsequent sale and forfeiture of the levied real property would be invalid.
In a decision penned by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the SC stressed that Section 258 of Republic Act No. 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC), “requires the treasurer of the local government to send the warrant of levy to the delinquent owner of the real property, among others.”
“The term ‘delinquent owner’ shall be construed as the person registered as owner of the realty based on the certificate of title, and not on the tax declaration,” the tribunal said.
“The failure of the treasurer to send the required notices to the delinquent registered owner of the property shall render void not only the levy, but the consequent public auction and sale of the subject property,” it added.
This came after the SC denied a petition filed by the Antipolo City government and its treasurer challenging the 2016 and 2017 rulings of the city’s regional trial court (RTC) in favor of Transmix Builders & Construction, Inc.
Case records showed that Clarisa San Juan Santos owned three parcels of land in Antipolo City with certificates of titles in her name. The tax declarations on the three lots were also in her name.
Sometime in January 1997, Transmix Builders bought the three pieces of land from Santos and, subsequently, certificates of titles were issued in the name of the firm. However, the firm failed to transfer the tax declarations over the properties in its name.
On Oct. 30, 2005, the Antipolo City treasurer published in a newspaper the notices of delinquency of real properties with unpaid real property taxes (RPT). Thereafter, the city government issued the corresponding notices of levy and the three lots bought by Transmix Builders were included. However, the notices were sent to Santos in her address reflected on the tax declarations, not to the firm as registered on the certificates of titles.
The city government also published on Nov. 27, 2005 the notice of public auction which was held on Dec. 28, 2005. For lack of bidders, Transmix Builders’ three lots were forfeited in favor of the Antipolo City government.
