Housing complaints in W. Visayas: titles, HOA disputes, refunds

ILOILO CITY — Disputes involving real estate transactions and homeowners associations (HOAs) remain among the cases handled by the Human Settlements Adjudication Commission-Regional Adjudication Branch 6 (HSAC-RAB 6).

During a National Shelter Month press conference on Monday, Oct. 5, lawyer Ayin Dream Aplasca, legal officer IV of HSAC-RAB 6, said real estate management cases commonly involve refunds, titles, delivery of titles, and completion-related concerns.

For HOAs, Aplasca identified election protests and contests, as well as association payment issues, among the most frequent cases.

“When it comes to [HOAs], mostly it’s about their election, protest, contest, and, of course payment of association issues. Those are the most frequent cases in our office,” Aplasca said.

The commission, or HSAC, is the successor of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) and a quasi-judicial agency attached to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), with jurisdiction over specific housing-related matters under the law.

Republic Act No. 11201, enacted in 2019, created the DHSUD and transferred the HLURB’s adjudication functions to the HSAC.

Aplasca explained that the process for resolving complaints begins with mandatory and mediation conferences.

If the parties fail to reach a compromise agreement, the case proceeds to the next stages of adjudication, including the submission of position papers.

“The mandatory conferencing is good for 60 days, and the mediation conferencing is good for 30 days. However, this 30-day mediation is within 60 days of the mandatory conferencing,” the legal officer explained.

The official said a resolution or decision may be issued 90 days from the last receipt of a position paper, although orders for clarification or inspection may affect the period.

No permanent ‘judge’ yet

But Aplasca said one of their key challenges is the lack of a permanent chief regional adjudicator, who serves as the judge over the region’s cases and as the regional office head.

The current officer-in-charge of HSAC-RAB 6 is lawyer Edhel Bautista-Luminate, who is also concurrently the chief regional adjudicator of RAB 4B, the MIMAROPA regional office, which is also located in the commission’s central office in Quezon City.

The HSAC’s 2025 Integrated Annual Report indicated that RAB 6 resolved 107 of the 137 cases it handled, comprising 120 real estate management cases and 17 HOA cases. The remaining 30 were pending as of December 2025.

While the commission had already resolved HLURB cases, Aplasca said a sitting regional adjudicator would allow for even faster issuances and case resolutions.

“It will contribute to how fast we can serve summons [and] how we can sign the decisions, because [right now] we have to mail that to the CRA in RAB 4B. We have been able to address [backlogs],” she said.

Without a Negros Island Region (NIR) office, the commission still handles cases from Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.

The NIR, created under Republic Act No. 12000, comprises Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.

Aplasca said the creation of an NIR office is expected to cut RAB 6’s docket.

The National Shelter Month press conference brought together the HSAC, DHSUD, the National Housing Authority, the Social Housing Finance Corporation, and other key shelter agencies to discuss housing programs and the services available to the public.