Can Real Estate Be Sold Using Only a Photocopy of the Certificate of Title?

Posted by: Nimrod Flores in Real Estate Documentation, Real Estate Laws On:October 19, 2017 Last updated: October 25, 2017

Technically, no. But practically, possibly yes.

You cannot complete the transfer of ownership of a property via sale, using only a photocopy of the Certificate of Title. But unfortunately, that doesn’t stop unscrupulous scammers. They still try to sell real estate they either don’t own, or don’t have the authority to sell. And sometimes, they succeed. This happens only when the buyer doesn’t have any idea what he is doing.

Let me clarify that – the sale can happen, but not the transfer of ownership.

The real owner doesn’t really have to worry about losing ownership to this property. The validity of his title is not affected by the fraudulent sale because that fraudulent sale is void from the beginning. The real problem is borne only by the unsuspecting buyer who did not know any better.

Why it cannot be done

Apart from the fact that this is against the law, there at least two big reasons why it cannot be done. These are the following procedural technicalities:

In the first place, no person can just go to the concerned government offices and transact about a sale of a property to which they are not a party, except when the person is authorized by either the buyer or the seller. In order to successfully transfer a real property to the name of the buyer, you need to deal with at least the following government offices:
- Bureau of Internal Revenue
- Registry of Deeds
- City/Municipality Assessor
- City/Municipality Treasurer
These government offices will not transact with just anyone about a sale of a real property. There are only two groups of people that they will transact with when it comes to these things. They are:
1. The parties themselves – either the Buyer or the Seller; or
2. The properly authorized representative of either one, or both of the parties
If a person is selling a property that’s not under his name, the least of the documents that he should show the buyer is the document authorizing him to offer the subject property for sale. This document may be entitled “Authority to Sell” or “Special Power of Attorney”, or “Listing Agreement”, or something similar.

The important thing to look for is that it says in the body of the document that its holder is authorized to sell or offer the subject property for sale. This document should be signed by the owner himself — the person whose name appears on the Certificate of Title.

If the person posing as the seller doesn’t have the authorization of the real owner, he cannot sign the Deed of Sale himself. Even if he does sign it, that will not be honored by the government agencies or anyone else. Because he is not the named owner in the Title and he doesn’t have the authorization of the owner.

It will all be the same even if the buyer himself will try to register that Deed of Sale with the Registry of Deeds or pay the taxes in BIR.

Going back, if the seller is a fraud and he only has a photocopy of the Certificate of Title, it is very likely that he also doesn’t have proper authorization from the real owner. Hence, the transfer of ownership will really not be successful.
Secondly, even supposing that the fraudulent seller faked the authorization from the real owner, the transfer will still fail because the original owner’s duplicate of the Certificate of Title, is one of the main requirements for transferring ownership. (Update: as pointed out in the comments below, to be technically correct, what I mean here is requirements for transferring registration.)

This second reason is really the main reason why you cannot sell real estate with just a photocopy of the Title. Well, “selling” itself might be possible if the buyer is really that stupid to give away his money over just a piece of photocopy. But not the actual transfer of ownership. And yes, I said stupid, because no person in his right mind will pay any considerable amount without first requiring the original document.

How scammers are able to do it anyway

Despite being technically impossible, fraudsters still try to do it. And sometimes, they succeed because even in this “information age”, some people are still naive enough to be fooled by simple scams like this. In most cases, these criminals can only prey on the most gullible victims.

We’ve also heard stories about more elaborate schemes that involve “contact persons inside” the government agencies. Some involve the use of seemingly genuine but actually fake “originals” of Certificates of Title. But these are not the cases I’m talking about in this article. I’m talking specifically about the use of only photocopies of the Title to sell a property.

As to how these scammers are able to convince their victims, I have no idea.

What should a buyer do then?

It’s just very simple to avoid getting scammed this way. If someone is offering to sell you a property, always require the original of the Certificate of Title before giving them your money.

Just to clarify, it’s quite common and actually practical for sellers to initially show only the photocopies. But this is just during the initial talks or negotiations. When you are already finalizing the transaction, only give away your money when the seller is able to provide you the original documents, most importantly, the Title.

And if you’d like to be really sure about the authenticity of the Title, you can verify it yourself with the relevant government agencies. Or if you’d rather have professionals do it for you, you may avail of Title verification services like what we provide here at PPE.

Related articles for further reading:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nimrod Flores

Nimrod is the co-founder of PPE Inc. and our Tech Officer. His experience in real estate started when he bought a tax-delinquent property auctioned by the government back in 2007. He’s currently studying law at the San Beda College of Law.

Prince Ahmir Al-Karim VI

thanks for sharing this
Chux Hizon

How can you authenticate if the title handed to you is really an original?
- Nimrod Flores
  
  If you’d like to do it yourself, here are two recommendations:
  
  1. How to Check Land Titles in the Philippines and Spot Fake Ones in 30 Seconds
  2. Where to Verify Authenticity of Property Titles
  
  If you’re not confident in doing it yourself, you can hire professional services. We offer this service here.
legislex

I am sorry, but I have to correct you. You can still transfer ownership of the property even in the absence of the owner’s duplicate original of the certificate of title. Generally, transfer of ownership of a real property is made through delivery or by operation of law, and not through transfer of registration. The certificate of title is just an evidence of ownership, but it does not vest ownership over a property. This is the reason why you can still acquire ownership over the property through prescription or accretion even without a certificate of title under your name. Maybe what you mean is that you cannot regularly transfer the REGISTRATION of the property without the original copy of the certificate of title.
- Nimrod Flores
  
  Thanks for the clarification @legislex:disqus, no need to be sorry about it. You’re right, ownership can be acquired by ways other than sale. There’s also no question about the purpose of the Certificate of Title which is a mere evidence of ownership and not the instrument that vests ownership.
  
  However, in the article, I’m talking about transfer of ownership via sale. This specific topic is even given away by the title of the article itself – can a property be sold using a only a photocopy of its Certificate of Title?
  
  If we start to consider acquisition of ownership by prescription or adverse possession, that would require at least the acquiescence of the real owner for 30 years. That’s a very long time and it’s very very unlikely to still happen in these days, unless probably if the owner and all his relatives and friends really don’t care about retaining their ownership of the subject property. In that case, the law is just right in favoring the adverse possessor.
Sinugba

Salamat po. More power.
Jon Robinson

Recently verified a title at the Register of Deeds office, and noted that the lot was correctly described, but was lacking the house that was built in the early 70’s. Will this be corrected when at the BIR when the seller pays CGT and DST? I noticed that “improvements” must be claimed with a certificate of improvement..is this correct? How and where is this certificate of improvement generated? Thanks.
Chris Formoso

In the case where there’s no fraud involved, we’re transferring between family members but lost the original title. Will be able to transfer the title by sale with only a certified true copy of the title?
Ramon Alivio

Can you buy property if there is a deed of sale but the seller hasn’t transferred the property to their name yet? Will the process be any different than buying a property under the seller’s name?
- NewsInsider001
  
  Any reply to this?
Anson

In my case I have bought a property in Makati city in 2010, only turned over in 2017 after more than 3 years of completion delayed. Till now I still do not have my original title deed released to me even after settled all payment. I have a buyer wanted to buy from me but I can’t produce the original title deed although I have the certified true copy of my title deed. Can we still proceed with the sales and transfer of ownership while waiting for the developer to release the time to us?