The Philippines is beset with buyers and homeowners being subjected to unscrupulous practices by many developers, brokers, dealers and agents in the real estate industry. A very good example is Property Company of Friends, Inc., or more known as Profriends, Inc. Among the many unscrupulous practices of this developer, and what the buyers and homeowners are experiencing are the following:

- Delayed (unit) turnover
- Defective/substandard unit (ie, below-standard quality of precast panels, houses without beams and posts, substandard use of ironworks, furnitures and fixtures, etc.)
- Housing projects built on environmentally/geographically unsafe locations (ie, floodprone locations, areas lying on fault lines, soils subject to liquefaction)
- No License to Sell or Certificate of Registration prior to selling of property/ies
- Lot alteration
- 0% construction or small percentage of unit completion
- Forced to in-house financing
- Cancelled account/unit without notice
- Misrepresentation, false/misleading information in their business dealings with buyers and homeowners (ie, difficulty in processing loan/property-related documents, staffs issuing unreliable, or fraudulent statements, defaulting on their promises and commitments to their clients, etc.)
- Paying real property tax (RPT) w/o actual possesion of unit, or title not yet in buyer's name
- Illegal Homeowners' Association
- Substandard quality of community services (ie, poor drainage facilities, no homeowner amenities, inadequate garbage collections, street lighting, improper engineering of roads, etc.).

In addition to the above-mentioned experiences, the said developer has the habit of breaking many of its nation's established laws, which will also be enumerated below:

I. PD 957 Subdivision and Condominium buyer's Protective Decree:
Section 5 – License to Sell
Section 9, subsections C, D, E and F - Revocation of Registration Certificate and License to Sell
Section 17 - Registration
Section 19 - Advertisement
Section 26 – Realty tax
Section 27 – Other charges
Section 30 – Organization of Homeowners Association

II. Republic Act 7394 Consumer Act of the Philippines
Article 10 - Injurious, Dangerous and Unsafe Products
Article 11 - Amendment and Revocation of Declaration of the Injurious, Unsafe or Dangerous
Character of a Consumer Product
Article 48 – Declaration of Policy
Article 50 - Prohibition Against Deceptive Sales Acts or Practices
Article 52 - Unfair or Unconscionable Sales Act or Practice
Article 110 - False, Deceptive And Misleading Advertisement

III. Republic Act 9904 Magna Carta For Homeowners Association
Section 7 – Rights of Member
Section 15 – Association Bylaws
Section 17 – Financial and Other Records
Section 24 – Review of Association Bylaws
Section 52 – Qualification of Officers

IV. PD 1096 National Building Code of The Philippines
Section 105 - Site Requirements
Section 708.d and 708.i - Minimum Requirements for Group A Dwellings (Section 708.d on Foundation; Section 708.i on Entrance and Exit)
Section 806 - Size and Dimensions of Rooms

V. Civil Code of the Philippines, Book 4 on Obligation and Contracts
Title 2, Chapter 2, Section 1, Articles 1330, 1332, 1338, 1339
Title 2, Chapter 9, Article 1409-1
Title 2, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 1330, 1332, 1338, 1339
Title 2, Chapter 9, Article 1409-1
Title 6, Chapter 4, Section 3, Articles 1546 and 1547
Title 6, Chapter 4, Section 3, Subsection 2, Articles 1561, 1566, 1568
Title 6, Chapter 6, Article 1599.3 and 1599.4

VI. HLURB Board Resolution 770 S.2004
(pursuant to EO 648, RA 8763, EO 535, PD902-A prior promulgation of RA9904 of 2009 for Homeowners Associations)
Section 10, Composition of the Board
Section 12, Duties of the Board
Section 18, Board Meetings
Section 32, Voting Rights in membership meetings.
Section 34, Independence of directors
Section 35, Disclosure of relationship of directors and officers
Section 48, Transparency
Section 49, Posting of collections
Section 50, Association Funds
Section 51, Reporting of Compensation
Section 52, Nomination Procedure
Section 54, Disclosure of information
Section 55, Regular Elections
Section 60, Qualification of officers
Section 66, Election of Directors and officers
Section 69, Registration of Association

VII. IRR for RA9904
Section 50 – Composition of Board

Note: Profriends, or other developers may still have violated more laws that are not limited to the ones cited above.

This developer alone has around a thousand or more buyers and homeowners of their different projects (notably Lancaster Estates or Lancaster New City, Bellefort Estates, Carmona Estates, Ville de Palm, Lakeshore, Montefaro, Garden Grove) experiencing stress and difficulties and most of them are overseas workers and first-time buyers whose inexperience were taken advantage, and who only have a simple dream of owning their dream houses but were dissilussioned because of such unscrupulous developers. Some already went to various government agencies and  media in order to seek help and expose this developer, and the Housing and Land use Regulatory Board (HLURB) has been inundated with overwhelming complaints and cases but the said developer continue its business despite such reports, while most buyers and homeowners get frustrated due to the slow pace and inefficiency of the agency in addressing the real issues raised to them. The said developer has also been featured in various media but ironically, after such complaints were aired, they become advertising and program sponsors.

This is now a time to call on the government to exercise its mandate. We call on President Aquino, especially Vice President Jejomar Binay, Housing Committee head Senator JV Ejercito, Commissioner Bernardo of HLURB to REALLY investigate these fraudulent developers victimizing thousands of buyers and homeowners:

Do away with politics and padrino systems and bureaucratic procedures, do what is demanded quickly and out of justice and right governance to protect the basic rights of your constituents, the basic right to have a decent home. We have already laid down the actions we demanded from you and this developer, we expect your swift action.

We are watching you.

(more on the ff. pages:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1550290108531277/​

http://lancasterresidences.blogspot.com/)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_Company_of_Friends