Issuance of New Titles Over Subdivision Lots

The circular is issued to guide Registers of Deeds on the proper practice for registering approved subdivision plans and issuing new titles over subdivision lots.
The circular corrects the wrong practice of requiring landowners to obtain individual transfer certificates of title for all subdivision lots when the law does not justify it.
The circular confirms that the existing registration approach—annotation of the subdivision plan with resulting lot descriptions—is considered sufficient registration when requested by the subdivision owner.

The circular relies on Section 58 of Presidential Decree (P.D.) No. 1529, which provides for a memorandum approach when land has been subdivided into several lots.
Section 58 allows the Register of Deeds, if desired by the grantor, to record on the grantor’s certificate and its owner’s duplicate a memorandum of the deed of conveyance and the issuance of the transfer certificate to the grantee for the conveyed lot or lots.
Section 58 requires that the grantor’s certificate is cancelled as to the conveyed lot or lots in that circumstance.
The circular instructs that the foregoing Section 58 mechanism governs when the subdivision owner requests title issuance only for certain lots.

New transfer certificates of title may be issued only over certain lot or lots when the subdivision owner desires such selective issuance.
Selective issuance under this procedure must be accompanied by the corresponding memorandum of transfer.
New title(s) issued for the conveyed lot or lots must be annotated on both the original and owner’s duplicate copies of the mother title.
The mother title shall be only partially cancelled as to the lot or lots conveyed.

Registers of Deeds must treat the annotation of the approved subdivision plan presented with the technical descriptions of the resulting lots on both the original and owner’s copies of the title as sufficient registration when the subdivision owner requests annotation rather than issuance of titles for all lots.
Registers of Deeds must not impose upon the landowner the issuance of individual titles for all subdivision lots when the landowner’s request and legal basis fall under the memorandum/annotation approach.
The circular directs that it is improper for Registers of Deeds to require issuance of transfer certificates for all lots on presentation for registration for lack of legal basis.

Where the subdivision owner requests the issuance of new titles for all the resulting lots, the Register of Deeds has no other alternative but to issue the desired certificates.
Full issuance of individual titles therefore applies as a consequence of the subdivision owner’s request for all resulting lots.
In that scenario, the Register of Deeds must carry out the complete issuance without substituting the memorandum/annotation-only approach.

The circular states that the described procedure is not new.
The circular affirms that the practice is an accepted practice in registration of titles and deeds.
The circular concludes with instructions for compliance: “Please be guided accordingly.”