Selling of Lot without License to Sell

I am a landowner. In 2010, I entered ito a Contract of Conditional Sale with a Foundation. The subject lot is10,000 sqm more or less. The Contract said the Foundation needed a property for the housing of its members. The payment period is 36 months in equal monthly installments. It also stipulated that after the initial payment the Foundation could start land development and upon subsequent payment, it can put up structure or a smalll office. Further, Contract said, lot buyers could build houses thereon. After two months the Foundation defaulted in payments. To cut the story short, I hired the services of a lawyer to demand payments or else, I would take the Buyer to court. Buyer made a compromise agreement with me to vacate the premises and return the lot to me on the condition that I honor the contract with the six lot buyers who were already occupants of their lots. Meaning, I would credit their payments and that the six could just continue paying the installments according to the contract with the Foundation.

Everything went smoothly until two of the occupants reneged on their monthly payments and incurred big arrears. Later, they demanded that I refund them their payments and that they would vacate their lots. I then computed the payments they gave for the years they stayed as rent and proposed to refund only the difference. They refused the proposal and demanded full refund. When I pressed them for payment, they instead filed with the HLURB a case against me for selling without license to sell.

Ang tanong ko ay may merit ba ang case nila? Alam ko matatalo ako sa kaso sa HLURB kasi noong nagharap kami sa arbiter for conciliation binully ako ng arbiter. Parang hindi conciliation kundi parang lawyer siya ng dalawa. Parang ang tingin ko may payoff na involve sakaling dumating sa settlement ang kaso kung hindi ako mag-appeal.

Please give me your opinion.

They do have a case. While it was the foundation which originally subdivided and sold the lots without a license, you agreed to step into their shoes when you took over.

This was what happened after I tried to recover my property. The six occupants organized a community association for purpose of availing loan through the Community Mortgage Program.However, upon orientation with a CMP mobilizer, they learned that to qualify there got to be a minimum of 20 members. So they convinced the other buyers from the Foundation mostly of whom were their kins to continue with their accounts. They then proceeded with the processes of legalizing the Association. First they elected the officers and Board of Directors and one of the two complainants was even elected Assistant Treasurer. However, when we went into the drafting of the Intent to Buy and Sell, the elected president got scared that the Association had to take care of defraying the cost of the equity (difference between selling price and loanable amount) especially so that he knew how difficult it was to collect from the members. So the elected president resigned and the legalization of the Association got stalled for about two years. Meanwhile, the members continued with their payments of their contribution share for the estimated equity. It was at this stage that one of the complainants incurred delinquencies and the subsequent filing of case against me. In January of this year, the Association was able to reorganize and register with the HLURB as a CMP project. How do I stand in this case?

Granting that the occupants were not able to organize into a Community Association, would receiving payments from two occupants constitute selling without license? Does it mean that if in the future I decide to sell two lots to two buyers, I would have to secure license to sell?

I can understand that this must be frustrating to you because you never intended to be a developer but you are legally one because of the subdivision done on your property and act of selling to different persons. a License to Sell is still necessary because even a CMP project is required to get one.