A tenant taking in bedspacers is the most common thing owners discover after the fact. The rule is short, and the interesting part is what happens when you say yes.
The rule
“Assignment of lease or subleasing of the whole or any portion of the residential unit, including the acceptance of boarders or bedspacers, without the written consent of the owner/lessor is prohibited.”
A separate section makes the same act a ground for judicial ejectment. They are not the same provision doing the same job — one prohibits, the other is what you would rely on in court:
“Assignment of lease or subleasing of residential units in whole or in part, including the acceptance of boarders or bedspaces, without the written consent of the owner/lessor;”
Written. Not agreed over the phone, not implied by the fact that you saw someone else in the unit and said nothing.
If you say yes
Consent is allowed and it is often the sensible answer — a tenant who can share the rent is a tenant who keeps paying it. What it does not do is move your duties onto them.
“The lessor is obliged: (1) To deliver the thing which is the object of the contract in such a condition as to render it fit for the use intended; (2) To make on the same during the lease all the necessary repairs in order to keep it suitable for the use to which it has been devoted, unless there is a stipulation to the contrary; (3) To maintain the lessee in the peaceful and adequate enjoyment of the lease for the entire duration of the contract.”
- Put the consent in writing and say how many people it covers — “yes” without a number is a number you will argue about later
- Keep collecting rent from your tenant, not from the bedspacers. Taking money directly from them is how they stop being your tenant’s guests
- The unit still has to be fit to live in, and that is still your side of the contract
- If the arrangement is what the unit is for from the start, that is a boarding house, and the deposit and advance limits reach it too
If you say nothing
Silence is the weakest position of the three. You have not consented in writing, so the arrangement is prohibited — but you have also let it run, and the tenant will say so. Whichever answer you want, give it in writing and give it early.
What a bedspacer is entitled to, and why the coverage line almost always reaches them, is on the tenant side at “Bedspace and boarding houses”. It is the same law.
This page quotes the law and links to the source. It is information, not legal advice, and it is not written for any one person’s situation. For your own case, go to your barangay or to a lawyer.
Law text checked 2026-08-09