What to Do When the Delivered Unit is Different?
You paid for four years. You arrive at turnover and the unit is smaller than the contract states, the finishes are not the specification you signed, the balcony in the floor plan is a window, or the swimming pool and function room described in the brochure were never built. This situation is more common in the Philippine market than most buyers expect, and the law provides considerably more protection than most buyers realize.
What determines the outcome is largely what you do in the first few weeks, and specifically whether you sign the acceptance document before or after the problem is recorded. This article sets out the categories of discrepancy, the legal basis for each remedy, the practical steps in order, and where to escalate.
First: Do Not Sign an Unqualified Acceptance
Before anything else, understand what the acceptance certificate does. A signed, unqualified certificate of acceptance may be read as confirming the unit was delivered in acceptable condition. It does not extinguish your legal rights, but it substantially weakens your practical position, because every subsequent conversation becomes a request rather than an obligation.
If you must sign to proceed, sign subject to a written punch list. Write clearly on the document that acceptance is subject to the attached list of defects and discrepancies, attach it, have the developer's representative acknowledge it, and photograph the annotated document before you hand it over.
Keep your own copy of everything you sign, photographed at the moment of signing. Disputes about what a document said when it was signed are avoidable with thirty seconds of preparation.
Establishing What You Were Actually Promised
Your case rests entirely on documentation, and the relevant documents are broader than most buyers assume.
The contract to sell or deed of sale states the unit number, floor area, and the parties' obligations. Floor area is the most frequently disputed item, so check whether the contract specifies gross or net area and how it was measured.
The technical specifications list the finishes, fixtures, and materials the developer committed to deliver. This is the document that answers whether a substituted material is a breach or a permitted variation.
The approved floor plan shows the layout, room dimensions, and features such as balconies and windows.
The brochures, renderings, and marketing materials. These matter more than buyers expect. Section 20 of Presidential Decree 957 requires a developer to construct and provide the facilities, improvements, and infrastructure it offered in approved plans, brochures, prospectus, or any form of advertisement, within one year from the issuance of the license to sell or such other period as fixed. It is an enforceable commitment. This is why keeping every marketing document from the start of the transaction matters.
The Categories of Discrepancy
Different problems attract different remedies, so identifying which category applies shapes everything that follows.
Floor area shortfall. The delivered unit is smaller than the contract states. This is the most objectively provable category, since it is settled by measurement, and it supports a claim for proportionate price reduction or, where the shortfall is substantial, rescission.
Specification substitution. Different flooring, cabinetry, fixtures, or fittings from those in the technical specification. The developer's usual defense is that substituted materials are of equivalent or better quality, which is a question of fact rather than a complete answer.
Layout variance. The delivered layout differs from the approved plan. A balcony that became a window, a room dimension materially reduced, or a feature removed.
Missing amenities. The pool, gym, function room, or landscaped areas represented in marketing material were not built or were substantially reduced. This is where PD 957 Section 20 operates most directly.
Defects in workmanship. Cracks, leaks, poor finishing, non functioning systems. These are ordinarily rectification matters rather than grounds to reject the unit, unless they are severe enough to render the unit unfit for use.
Wrong unit entirely. A different unit number, a different floor, or a different orientation than contracted.
Your Legal Rights
Several bodies of law operate together here, and it is useful to know which does what.
Presidential Decree 957 is the principal statute. Beyond the Section 20 obligation on represented facilities, Section 25 requires the developer to deliver title upon full payment, and the performance bond posted under Section 6 guarantees the development as represented.
The Civil Code governs the contract itself. Where a party fails to comply with what is incumbent upon them, the injured party may seek specific performance, meaning that the developer be required to deliver what was promised, or rescission with damages. Provisions on warranty against hidden defects also apply to defects that were not apparent at delivery.
The Maceda Law, Republic Act No. 6552, protects buyers paying in installments, providing grace periods and a partial cash surrender value after at least two years of payments. It is a payment protection rather than a delivery remedy, but it is relevant where a buyer is deciding whether to stop paying.
The Consumer Act addresses deceptive and misleading sales practices, which is relevant where marketing material materially misrepresented what would be delivered.
The practical remedies available are therefore: rectification, meaning the developer fixes it; proportionate price reduction; specific performance; rescission with refund and damages where the breach is substantial; and, separately, administrative sanctions against the developer.
The Practical Sequence
Order matters. Doing these steps out of sequence weakens each one.
Step one: document comprehensively, immediately. Photograph and video every discrepancy with something in frame for scale and location. Measure the floor area yourself, ideally with a licensed professional. Record the date of every photograph. Put the contract, technical specifications, floor plan, and marketing materials in one file alongside the evidence.
Step two: write to the developer formally. Not a text message, not a conversation with the site representative. A dated written letter or email, addressed to the company, describing each discrepancy specifically, referencing the contract clause or specification it breaches, stating what you require, and setting a reasonable deadline for response.
Step three: keep paying unless advised otherwise. This is counterintuitive and important. Stopping payment unilaterally can place you in default and shift the legal position against you. If your position is that the developer is in breach, take advice before withholding, so that any withholding is done on a proper basis and properly communicated.
Step four: escalate within the company. If the site office does not resolve it, write to the corporate office, the customer relations department, and where appropriate the officers. Keep every response.
Step five: file with DHSUD. The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development administers PD 957 and has jurisdiction over disputes between buyers and developers. File with the DHSUD Regional Office covering the project location, attaching your documentation. This route is designed for exactly this situation and is considerably faster and cheaper than court.
Step six: consider court action for substantial claims, or where the administrative process does not resolve the matter. Take Philippine counsel before this stage.
What Strengthens and Weakens Your Position
What strengthens it: contemporaneous photographs and video dated at turnover; the complete set of marketing materials retained from the beginning; formal written communication with dates; an independent measurement or professional assessment; a punch list acknowledged by the developer; and continued compliance with your own payment obligations.
What weakens it: an unqualified signed acceptance; verbal complaints with no written record; delay, since raising a problem months after turnover invites the argument that it arose afterward; unilateral non payment without a proper basis; and discarded brochures, which is the most common and most avoidable loss.
Practical Expectations
Being clear about likely outcomes is more useful than either false comfort or discouragement.
Minor finishing defects are usually rectified, sometimes slowly, and a documented punch list with a deadline is normally the effective tool.
Specification substitutions are frequently negotiated rather than reversed, with the developer offering an allowance, an upgrade elsewhere, or a price adjustment.
Floor area shortfalls tend to resolve on price, since the measurement is objective and the proportionate reduction is calculable.
Missing amenities are the strongest PD 957 claims and also the slowest, because building an omitted facility is a larger undertaking than replacing a countertop.
Rescission is available for substantial breach but it is not the usual outcome, and buyers should be realistic that it involves a longer process. It is most viable where the discrepancy goes to the essence of what was purchased.
Preventing This Before It Happens
The best position in a delivery dispute is established years before turnover.
- Verify the developer before you buy. Confirm the DHSUD Certificate of Registration and License to Sell. Advertising or accepting reservations without a License to Sell is prohibited under PD 957, and a project without one is a warning rather than a formality.
- Check the developer's completion record. Visit projects they delivered several years ago, and speak to owners in them.
- Keep every brochure, rendering, price list, and marketing message from the first day, including screenshots of social media posts and website pages.
- Get the technical specification in writing as part of the contract, not as a verbal assurance during a viewing.
- Ask which finishes in the show unit are the delivered specification and which are upgrades, and get that answer in writing.
- Schedule a proper inspection appointment separate from the signing appointment, in daylight, with utilities connected.
Almost every delivery dispute is decided by what was documented before the acceptance form was signed, which makes the paperwork at the beginning worth more than the argument at the end. You can explore verified property listings across the Philippines, with developer registration and seller authority confirmed at source, at The Grid Property Ventures, the Philippines' smartest real estate platform.
