Your Lease Has Expired: Can You Stay?

The lessor may go to court to eject a lessee when "the period agreed upon... has expired" (Article 1673(1)). Other grounds in the same article are non-payment of rent, violation of the conditions of the contract, and using the place for a purpose not agreed that damages it. Ejectment is "judicial", meaning through a court case.

Article 1670 sets the rule:

This is also called tacita reconduccion. In Samelo v. Manotok Services, Inc. (2012), the Supreme Court listed three requisites:

1. the term of the original lease has expired;
2. the lessor has not given the lessee a notice to vacate; and
3. the lessee continued enjoying the place for fifteen days with the lessor's acquiescence.

It depends on how rent is paid. Article 1687 says that when no period is fixed, the lease is "from year to year, if the rent agreed upon is annual; from month to month, if it is monthly; from week to week, if the rent is weekly; and from day to day, if the rent is to be paid daily." The same article lets a court fix a longer term in some cases, for example after a tenant paying monthly rent has occupied the place for over one year.

So a tenant who paid monthly rent under a one-year contract does not get another year. In Samelo, the Court said a lease from month to month is "one with a definite period which expires at the end of each month upon a demand to vacate by the lessor."

With a notice to vacate. In Samelo, the Court said a notice to vacate "constitutes an express act on the part of the lessor that it no longer consents to the continued occupation by the lessee of its property." After that notice, the tenant's possession "becomes one of detainer."

A notice given before the lease ends can stop the implied new lease from arising at all. In Buce v. Spouses Galeon (2020), the lessors sent a notice that they would not renew the contract. The Court treated it as a notice to vacate, so the requisites of an implied new lease were not present. The tenant was ordered to pay reasonable compensation for the use of the property from the end of the contract until she left.

Go to court. The case is unlawful detainer under Rule 70 of the Rules of Court. Section 2 says that, unless otherwise stipulated, the lessor files it only after a demand to pay or comply with the lease and to vacate, and the tenant fails to comply within fifteen days for land or five days for buildings. The case must be filed within one year (Section 1). In many cases the dispute must first go through the barangay. See How to evict a tenant, Forcible entry vs unlawful detainer and Do I need to go to the barangay first?

For residential units covered by the Rent Control Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 9653), yes, in part. Section 12 suspends Article 1673(1), the ground of an expired period, for covered units, "Except when the lease is for a definite period". Section 9 lists the grounds for ejecting a covered tenant, including "Expiration of the period of the lease contract." Section 10 says there is no ejectment "upon the ground that the leased premises have been sold or mortgaged to a third person".

Whether a unit is covered depends on its location and monthly rent (Section 5). This page does not give the current coverage limits: the rent ceilings and the period of the law were extended by later resolutions that we could not read on an official page.

Under Article 1403(2)(e), "An agreement for the leasing for a longer period than one year" cannot be enforced in court unless there is a written note or memorandum signed by the party charged, or the contract was ratified. See Is a verbal agreement binding?

These are made-up examples to show how the rules work. They are not advice for any real case.

Dina's one-year lease of an apartment ends on 31 March. She stays and keeps paying the monthly rent, and the owner accepts it without objection for more than fifteen days. Under Article 1670 and Samelo, there is an implied new lease, month to month, on the old terms.

In June, the owner sends Dina a written notice to vacate. Her month-to-month lease ends at the end of that month. If she stays, her possession becomes unlawful detainer, and the owner may file a case after the demand period in Rule 70.

Paolo's lessor wrote to him a month before the end of his lease that it would not be renewed. As in Buce, no implied new lease arises even if Paolo stays a few more weeks.

Talk to a lawyer if you received a notice to vacate, if you are a tenant whose unit may be under rent control, or if you are an owner whose tenant will not leave. Whether an implied new lease exists, and whether rent control applies, depends on the facts and the documents.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, see Free legal help in the Philippines. The full rule is on the Article 1670 page.