Ms. Fe D. Vicencio

January 4, 1994 Ms. Fe D. Vicencio Sunette Tower Condominium Corp. Durban St. cor. Makati Ave. Bel Air, Makati, Metro Manila M a d a m : This refers to your letter of November 26, 1993 requesting opinion on the queries posed therein. cdll As stated, Sunette Tower Condominium Corporation (STCC) was incorporated as a non-profit, non-stock corporation pursuant to the provisions of the Condominium Act. The Board of Directors and the stockholders/unit owners are in the process of discussing the possibility of adopting a resolution to the effect that for units that are not occupied by the unit owners, their respective units can be rented out only through a rental management company which shall be distinct and separate from STCC. The rationale for this resolution are the following: 1. Through a unified rental management system, STCC will only deal with one party and avoid dealing with several parties consisting of various unit owners, brokers, rental management companies; 2. Standardization of units in terms of furnishings etc. can be easily implemented; 3. Ruinous competition can be avoided and other security measures can be better and easily implemented. It is well-settled that the owner of property has an absolute and inherent right, as an incident of his ownership, to sell, dispose, alienate, transfer or encumber the same at will, except insofar as the right may be restricted by law. The pertinent provision of Republic Act No. 4726, otherwise known as the Condominium Act, provides thus: "SECTION 4. The provisions of this Act shall apply to property divided or to be divided into condominiums only if there shall be recorded in the Register of Deeds of the province or city in which the party lies, and duly annotated in the corresponding certificate of title of the land if the latter had been patented or registered under either the Land Registration or Cadastral Acts, an enabling or master deed which shall contain , among others, the following: (h) Any reasonable restriction not contrary to law, morals, or public policy regarding the right of any condominium owner to alienate or dispose of his condominium ." (Emphasis supplied) "SECTION 6. Unless otherwise expressly provided in the enabling or master deed or declaration of restrictions , the incidents of a condominium grant are as follows: xxx xxx xxx (f) Each condominium owner shall have the exclusive right to mortgage pledge or encumber his condominium and to have the same appraised independently of the other condominium but any obligation incurred by such condominium owner is personal to him. (Emphasis supplied) "SECTION 9. The owner of a project shall, prior to the conveyance of any condominium therein, register a declaration of restrictions relating to such project, which restriction shall constitute a lien upon each condominium in the project, and shall inure to and bind all condominium owners in the projects. Such liens, unless otherwise provided, may be enforced by any condominium in the project. The Register of Deeds shall enter and annotate the declaration of restrictions upon the certificate of title covering the land included within the project, if the land is patented or registered under the Land Registration or Cadastral Acts. xxx xxx xxx." It can be construed from the foregoing provisions that any restriction as to the transfer, lien or encumbrance of condominium units, to be valid, must be expressly provided in the enabling or master deed or the declaration of restrictions duly annotated in the certificate of title registered under the Land Registration or Cadastral Acts . We, therefore, answer your queries in the negative. Please be advised accordingly. Very truly yours, (SGD.) ROSARIO N. LOPEZ Chairman