Promissory Note Generator

Most everyday disputes I see between Filipinos, an unpaid loan to a relative, a lease gone sour, a sale of a secondhand car, did not need a lawyer at the start. They needed a piece of paper that said clearly what each side agreed to. A contract generator solves the blank-page problem for these standard situations, but a template only helps if you understand what makes the agreement enforceable in the first place. I built the promissory note generator to produce clean drafts of common documents, and this guide explains the law underneath so you know when the draft is genuinely enough and when you should stop and call a professional.

A contract is binding the moment three things exist

Under the Civil Code (RA 386), a contract is perfected and binding when three requisites are present: consent of the parties, a definite object (the thing or service being agreed on), and a cause or consideration (the reason each side is entering it, usually the price or the exchange). Notice what is not on that list. A contract does not need to be notarized, or even written, to be valid and enforceable between the parties. A verbal agreement to lend a friend ₱20,000 is a real, binding loan the moment both of you consent. The reason we write things down is not validity; it is proof, because a year later memories conveniently diverge about what was promised.

Why notarization matters even though it is not required

If a contract is valid without notarization, why bother? Because notarization changes the document's evidentiary weight. A signed but un-notarized contract is a private document; if its authenticity is challenged in court, you have to prove the signatures are genuine. A notarized contract becomes a public document that enjoys a presumption of regularity, which is much harder for the other side to dispute. For some transactions it goes further: a deed of sale of real property must be in a public (notarized) instrument before it can be registered and the title transferred, so while an un-notarized deed is valid between buyer and seller, it cannot move the title at the Registry of Deeds. The notary is buying you enforceability and registrability, not validity.

The Statute of Frauds: when writing is mandatory

There is a category of agreements that the Civil Code, through the Statute of Frauds (Article 1403), requires to be in writing to be enforceable at all. The practical ones for ordinary people are a lease longer than one year, an agreement that by its terms cannot be performed within a year, a sale of real property or an interest in it, and a promise to answer for someone else's debt. If you make one of these verbally, the law will not enforce it even if both sides admit it was agreed, which is a trap for the casual handshake deal. So a one-year-and-one-day apartment lease must be written down, while an eleven-month lease technically need not be, an asymmetry that explains why so many Philippine residential leases are quietly written for eleven months and renewed.

Can I just use a template instead of hiring a lawyer?

For standard, low-stakes, well-understood transactions, a clean template covers the ground: a simple loan with a clear amount and due date, a basic residential lease, a straightforward acknowledgment receipt. The requisites are simple and the risks are known. Where a template stops being safe is the moment real money or real assets are involved or the terms are unusual: a property sale, a business partnership, anything with conditions, warranties, or large penalties. A template cannot ask about your specific situation or warn you about the clause you forgot, and the cost of a lawyer reviewing a draft is trivial next to the cost of a defective agreement over a ₱2,000,000 lot.

Is a contract signed but not notarized still valid?

Yes, between the parties it is generally valid and binding, because validity comes from consent, object, and cause, not from the notary's seal. What you lose without notarization is the easier path to proving it. If the other party later denies signing, an un-notarized private document forces you to establish the signatures' authenticity, whereas a notarized one is presumed regular. And for the specific transactions that the law requires to be in a public instrument, registration of property being the main one, an un-notarized document simply will not accomplish the legal effect you wanted even though it binds the two of you.

If you want to actually understand the rules rather than just copy a template, a book I genuinely recommend is Hector S. De Leon's The Law on Obligations and Contracts (ISBN 978-621-04-5316-4). It is the standard text most Filipino law and business students learn from, and it explains consent, object, cause, and the Statute of Frauds in plain, worked detail — exactly the foundations this guide rests on.

I am a developer, not a lawyer, and this guide is general information rather than legal advice. If a statement here is wrong or out of date, please tell me so I can fix it. You can reach me through the about page.

• Home Loan Calculator
• Estate Tax Calculator
• Amilyar (Real Property Tax) Calculator

Sources

• Civil Code of the Philippines (RA 386)
• Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160) — transfer tax on real property

Changelog

• 2026-06-18 — Updated the in-text tool link to the renamed Promissory Note Generator.
• 2026-06-18 — Added a recommended obligations-and-contracts reference and this sources section.
• 2026-06-01 — Initial publication.