The Supreme Court clarifies the HSAC's jurisdiction

The rise of condominium developments across the Philippines has inevitably given rise to a plethora of issues and disputes between buyers and developers.

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To address these, the current legal framework provides various remedies against erring developers. For instance, Presidential Decree No. 957, or the Subdivision and Condominium Buyers' Protective Decree, allows buyers to pursue criminal cases against developers who fail to deliver condominium titles.

But what happens when buyers also want to seek damages for the harm that they have suffered? Should their claims for civil liability be filed with the Human Settlements Adjudication Commission (HSAC, formerly the HLURB or Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board), which has jurisdiction over various housing-related disputes, or with the regular courts? The Supreme Court answered this in the case of Vivien M. Cadungog v. Sung Ha Jung (G.R. No. 254543, April 2, 2025), which involved a criminal case filed by a buyer against a developer for failure to deliver the title to the condominium unit.

THE CASE

The dispute arose out of a Contract to Sell between a buyer and a developer of a condominium building in Cebu City. Under the contract, the buyer agreed to pay a downpayment for the unit, with the balance to be paid upon its delivery.