Living in Cebu and Cebuano Landlords
I’ve had only two landlords since I’ve been living in Cebu. Kind of three, I’ll explain that later. Neither of them have ripped me off. However, both had done some things that would get them in 
hot legal water if it were the USA. However, its not the USA and I must operate with the way of the people that live in Cebu.
First, avoid getting anything from the web. That may not be possible, but if you can avoid getting a place until you get here, I’d do that. I have people ask me if I can help them find a place to live here. Its understandable. They are going on what they know. What they know though is not the Philippines. I can’t go find them something and then point it out on the web. Most places to live are not on the web.
I have, a couple of times, took pictures and obtained contact numbers of places for rent here. No one has ever actually used that. I suppose I could arrange it if someone wanted to pay my travel expenses and my time. Its hard work finding a place for someone to live. I might even have to pay someone else to help me with it. The heat makes me sick so I avoid it.
I found my first place on the web. Talked with the Filipino that lives in the USA. He sent me a lease, I signed it, sent it back to him and sent him the cash. Later he sent me a lease again and new pictures. I didn’t understand why he did that. He said he had to open a new unit for me as the one I was suppose to get was not available.
I assumed it was the same as the unit I had paid for but at a new location. He didn’t mention that it was about half the size of the place I paid for and there was no hot water and only the bedroom had air conditioning. I found that out, only after I was inside.
I asked for a partial refund and he said no, I had signed the lease. The lease didn’t indicate the unit was a different size and lacked the things that made me take the place in the first place. It was a nice place. It was small, didn’t have air conditioning throughout and had one less bathroom and bedroom!
It was even owned by someone else! That is the other landlord I mentioned. I really like her. She was awesome. Took care of all the problems we had. There were not a lot of problems though.
Eventually the original landlord did move me into the location that I was suppose to be in. That opened up some new problems, mostly minor but still not as described.
I knew an expat that lived in Bogo City and had a home I really liked. He was moving! I jumped on that, got the place. I’ve been here for two years now.
The landlord has been very helpful. She even co-signed a loan for my girlfriend so that we could get appliances. Wow! That was nice of her. Things have been a bit rough ever since. She’s not always been wrong but has been inflexible.
Then a couple of months ago, she did something that really angered me. I still want to move. Jessie, my girlfriend, however, likes it here. Me too but my pride is having a hard time accepting this. My pride tells me to move and move even if it hurts me in some way.
What did she do? She rented part of our home to someone else! We have an outside kitchen. It is common here, called a dirty kitchen. Its a BBQ. It has our electrical and water connections running to it.
When I told her I needed it back, she said something like “Sorry Rusty, its already rented to them.” I responded with, “its already rented to me too!” She then told me no, it was not, that I had asked to borrow it. Oh man, my blood is smoldering again. That’s insane, its crazy, its wrong and I can’t believe she told me that.
I suspect, that it will cause me to move out eventually. I also know that someone else tried to rent the place out from under us. She turned them down because she doesn’t like Koreans! They offered twice what I pay. I’ve been lead to believe that if they had not been Korean, we would have been forced to move out!
I have a fast internet connection in this home. Getting that in the next place would be difficult and perhaps, impossible. I can’t move to a place that doesn’t already have a land based internet. I could go with less speed but it wouldn’t be a great thing. No connection at all is not an option for me.
Like most things about living in the Philippines, it is important to not apply your customs and laws to what you expect to have happen here. Those old things simply do not apply. This is a different place. When you first arrive here, you’re probably going to be slightly shocked. If you can’t roll with the punches, if you can’t adapt to new things, then you probably should stay where you are. Maybe come for a visit. Go to the playground for middle aged guys but forget living in the Philippines unless you can accept this isn’t going to be what you are use too.
If you can adapt to the changes required then its a wonderful place to live. I caution you though, careful when dealing with the landlords of Cebu and the Philippines as a whole. If you want to buy here, there are all kinds of problems. You need a lawyer and you need to be careful on picking one too! Ask another expat for help. I know one that has purchased quite a bit of land. He can provide a lot of help. Going it alone is a foolish thing to do.
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Tagged with: Bogo City • Living in Cebu
Filed under: Living In The Philippines
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Hi Rus, So would you say that ANY accommodation in Bogo are hard to find? or only western style accommodation? I’m still thinking of building something in Cebu soon, most likely apartments in Mactan island. I am wondering about the Korean thing? Why would the landlord (or is it a landlady?) not keen to rent to Koreans? Hope you got your meds sorted.
A western style HOME in Bogo might be impossible to find. One can find something close enough though. There are always Solid Homes. An apartment complex.
Your bother could probably explain the Korean thing better than myself. But GENERALLY, Filipino don’t like Koreans. Easy to find Filipino trashing them.
I should have commented on the idea of not renting based on nationality or race. That would get a landlord in massive trouble in the USA. This is not the USA and though i could be mistaken, I don’t think there are any laws to prevent it. I’m going to go research that now.
I have now looked on the web for anti-discrimination law in the Philippines. I found some but it was directed to women only. Nothing based on race or national origin that I could find.
Maybe someone knows and will point it out if I’m mistaken.
If the employers in the Philippines can discriminate based on age, looks and gender, then I am not surprised that anyone would discriminate againsts certain nationalities. Oh well, only in the Philippines. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I think us in the west are kow-towing too much on political correctness, we can’t even call a spade a spade anymore!
Christine, that’s pretty much what I based my discrimination comment on. The employment situation.
First time I saw want ads in the Philippines, I was surprised. Its almost always under 25 for job requirements. 30 for management positions.
Its not my place to pass judgment on the practices of the Filipino people. I don’t have any desire to do so. The people have been getting along just fine with it.
Only in the Philippines, is a term I avoid myself. However, its common for Filipino to use it. It usually is not meant in a negative manner but people in every land say that. Only in America is a common thing to hear. Most of the time, its not accurate as whatever the speaker is describing happens all over.
Ok.. a little insight gifted to me by Phillipinos working here in Korea.
Many ( and do mean many) Koreans got tothe Phils as an alterantive to going to Australia or the USA for language training. They typically come there for 2-3 months and sign leases for 1 year or more at inflated prices… and then when it is time they… leave.
How can they get away with it? Extremely well forged documents can be easily acquired at home. Also, there is little recourse for the typical filipino to sue in Korean courts since it is prohibitive to do so financially.
Another reason would be the sex tourism trade. Many come over seeking a short-time thing and either promise the moon and get what they want and then leave…or… find out that no-one is selling and then become abusive to the populous in general ( All Phillipinos are racist!).
It really is a matter that Koreans like to think of the Phils as their playground… sorry, but thats what they tell me.
Hi JD, welcome. What you describe regarding Koreans bailing after a month or two on a one year lease may have something to do with it. Not much though. It has more to do with the attitude that Filipino perceive that most Koreans have toward them. The Koreans are perceived as looking down on the locals.
I’ve had two encounters with Koreans, one was positive, the other, the two were extremely rude. I’ve heard a lot of comments toward Koreans though. None of them were good. From both Filipino and foreigners here.
Myself, I’ll try to avoid going on what others say and deal with people one on one and base what I think on the content of their character.
The playground is part of it.
Hi Rus, further to JD’s comment re-the sex tourism thing. I read an article recently about an orphanage in Cebu that cares for mixed race children. Interesting to note that a majority of these children were fathered by Japanese and Koreans, hence they were called Kopinos and Japinos and hardly any were fathered by Caucasians. Here’s a link to the article. Pls remove if you think this inappropriate. But it really is good reading.
http://filipinaimages.com/abandoned-children-and-the-great-filipina-sperm-war/
Was looking forward to visiting a site with Filipina and images in the domain name. Awww dang it, their bandwidth has been exceeded. LOL
I guess a lot of people looked forward to seeing it.
Hi Christine, thanks for the link. I was surprised though. I didn’t expect taht this sort of thing still happens.
Do we dislike Koreans? Koreans generally look down on Pinoys. Heck, we are racists. They are too, a hundred times over! I used to work for Koreans. Although I had few pleasant experiences w/ some of them, I find though that their attitude is that Filipinos should be grateful (& incredibly lucky) that they (the Koreans) chose the Phil to visit and not some other countries
Hey Christine, you’ve disappeared on me gain. I read that article tonight.
wow, disgusting. I think it was written to get people to link back to it. The position they took was absurd.
I was shocked to see the author talk about all the foreigners that make babies then run off. That is rampant among pinoy. The number of Filipino I know with pinoy dead beat dads is staggering. The number of women have affairs with married pinoy is about equal to the number of single Filipina with Children. I shouldn’t let that guy get to me. He can’t possibly believe what he wrote. Its bait, intended to anger people. That’s why the site owner said it was written by a reader.
hmm, very interesting insight, JD. Thanks for that. The Philippines will only become the Korean’s playground if we let them. Sadly, we do!!
And I retract my “only in the Philippines” statement Rus. It was unfair of me to say that (but I was saying it proudly by the way) because lots of countries do still practice all sorts of discrimination. The middle east comes to mind easily. Anyway, talking of gender discrimination on the ads, I remember reading the wanted ads when I was a school girl in the Phil. Any job ads requiring females always had the words “must have pleasant personality”. I have never forgotten those because they were very common when I was living there. By “pleasant personality” I am guessing that the employers were asking for someone pretty and attractive. So is this called “facial discrimination”?
I’m not sure why you would retract it. I didn’t say or think you were out of line.
Yes and the ads often add that the female must be single.
There are lots of ugly women working in the department stores though.
The way the make them dress is ugly but that’s probably due to my western ideas on what is not ugly. The powder to make oneself appear white? Looks like a zombie.
I chose to retract it because I realized PI is not the only country that practices discrimination. And the ad also says must be single huh? I did not remember that. I just remembered the “must have pleasant personality” bit because I remembered asking an aunt what it meant – lol! Of course in the west, “pleasant personality” does not necessarily mean a pretty face.