Permit fines: how the amount charged is calculated

It is Chapter 11.4 of Joint Regulation No. 9473. It is what comes after Chapter 11.2: if investigating a complaint concludes the allegations are true, the Planning Board, the autonomous municipality with hierarchy I to III or the government entity concerned issues an administrative fine. The chapter says who issues it, how it is calculated, what the ticket must say, how it is paid and what must be done before asking for it to be reconsidered.

It applies to anyone fined by the Planning Board, the Permit Audit Officer, a government entity concerned or an autonomous municipality with hierarchy I to III. The regulation adds a group that surprises people: the fines also apply to anyone who obstructs, limits, halts or invades, without authority of law, an authorised construction activity or use. And a fixed ten-thousand-dollar fine falls on any person, entity, agency, instrumentality or municipality authorised to issue permits that grants a provisional permit in violation of Ley 161-2009.

• That the ticket or order contain the date and time of issue, the name of the official issuing it, the place of the infraction, the administrative fault charged, the legal provision breached, the amount of the fine and the official’s signature.Verified against the official source
• That the copy delivered also include the instructions for seeking reconsideration and review.Verified against the official source
• Depositing the full amount of the fine with the Planning Board, in the account specially set up for such deposits, before a reconsideration is entertained.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Where the fine comes from

   If investigating a complaint concludes the allegations are true, the Planning Board, the autonomous municipality with hierarchy I to III or the government entity concerned will issue an administrative fine not exceeding fifty thousand dollars per infraction, it being understood that each day the infraction subsists is an independent violation. That last sentence is what turns a small problem into a big one: the clock runs while the work or the use is still there. To issue the tickets, the Board, the Permit Audit Officer, the government entities concerned and the municipalities may draw on their officials and employees, as well as on the Police Bureau or the municipal police forces.

2. 2

   Step 2: First the base: $500 or double the permit

   The calculation starts from a base amount. To determine the fine, a minimum base amount of five hundred dollars is set, or the cost of the permit or alleged fault multiplied by two, whichever is greater. Where a permit is absent, the five-hundred-dollar minimum is used. And there is a clarification that heads off arguments: the permit’s cost is taken to be what the respondent would have had to pay had the normal process been followed. In other words, the saving from not seeking the permit does not reduce the fine: it defines it.

3. 3

   Step 3: Then severity: the multiplier table

   The base is multiplied by the severity of the violation. The regulation’s table gives: absence of a permit, twice the fine’s base; expired permit, once the base; breach of the permit’s conditions, one and a half times the base; operating a use other than the one authorised or granted, twice the base; false information, one and a half times the base; breach of Planning Board orders, three times the base. For breach of a law or regulation the table gives no multiplier: a preliminary penalty of five hundred dollars is set for each violation. And for "other", one to three times the permit’s base. An important note about the source: in the published PDF, that table’s first column is cut off by the left margin, so the rows read truncated. The definitions that follow in the regulation itself allow six of the names to be reconstructed; the three-times-the-base row, the one about Board orders, does not appear among those definitions.

4. 4

   Step 4: What each fault means

   The regulation defines the table’s faults. Absence of a permit: where one operates without the corresponding permit. Expired permit: an infraction for a permit expired by less than a year; if expired by more than a year, it is treated as absence of a permit — and there the multiplier jumps from one to two. Breach of the permit’s conditions: infringing the conditions, and the breach of each condition counts as an independent violation. Operating a use other than the one authorised or granted: where a use is being operated that is not the one described in the permit issued for the property. False information: where false information has been given during the administrative process, whether intentionally or through gross negligence. Breach of a law or regulation: any infraction of Ley 161-2009, the Joint Regulation, the Planning Regulations or any other applicable law that is not specified within a permit or final determination.

5. 5

   Step 5: Aggravating factors: twenty per cent, or fifty

   Aggravating factors are deemed to exist where there is a risk of damage or negative impact to health, safety or property; damage or negative impact to health, safety or property; economic benefit; or recidivism. A determination that those factors exist carries an increase of twenty per cent of the fine’s total. And if the damage or impact to safety or property is greater and irreparable, the increase will be fifty per cent or up to a maximum of fifty thousand dollars, whichever is greater — all of it without prejudice to any civil or criminal action for faults or violations of other laws and regulations. In cases of recidivism or contumacy, an additional administrative fine of up to one hundred thousand dollars per violation may be imposed following the same parameters.

6. 6

   Step 6: The lien on your property

   This is the consequence most people discover late: the fines constitute a real lien on the title of the property involved in the violation or violations. It is not a personal debt sitting in a file: it burdens the property. And the Board and the municipalities will take every step necessary to collect fines that have become final and firm, including going to the Court of First Instance, recording the fine in the Government of Puerto Rico’s register of issued fines and in SUI’s permanent register, and contracting collection services. Every debt and fine is recorded in that permanent register.

7. 7

   Step 7: What the ticket must say

   If an administrative fault is determined to have occurred, the Permit Audit Officer, the government entities concerned and the autonomous municipalities with hierarchy I to III may issue administrative orders or fine tickets, containing at a minimum: the date and time of issue; the name of the official issuing the order or ticket; the place where the infraction took place; the administrative fault charged; the legal provision breached; the amount of the fine to be paid; and the signature of the issuing official. The forms may be electronic, and the official will include their full name and sign digitally or by hand. The copy is delivered in person, by certified mail or electronically to whoever is in charge of the property — owner, agent, employee, manager, assignee, tenant or successor — and will also contain the instructions for seeking reconsideration and review. If the person to notify is unknown, any alternative method authorised by the procedural and court rules is used.

8. 8

   Step 8: How it is paid

   The regulation gives three routes. By credit card through the online payment system on SUI. In person at the Planning Board’s seat, which the regulation places at the Roberto Sánchez Vilella Government Centre, Ave. De Diego, Stop 22, North Building, 14th Floor, San Juan. Or by certified mail with return receipt to: Junta de Planificación, Oficina de Presupuesto y Finanzas, P.O. Box 41119, San Juan PR 00940-1119. If paying by certified cheque or postal or bank money order, it must be made out to the Secretary of the Treasury with the ticket number noted on it. And if it is not paid, interest accrues on the amount imposed until it is satisfied, at the interest rate for civil judgments in force when the proceeding began.

9. 9

   Step 9: Reconsidering: you must deposit first

   A party adversely affected by a fine issued by the Board, the Permit Audit Officer, the government entity concerned or the autonomous municipalities with hierarchy I to III may file an application for reconsideration or review, as Chapter 11.5 of the same volume provides. But there is a condition the regulation repeats twice and which in practice decides who challenges and who does not: if a fine has been issued, the party must deposit the full amount of the fine with the Board, in an account specially set up for such deposits. No reconsideration will be entertained without the proper deposit where a fine has been imposed. That is: deposit the total first, argue afterwards.

Payment goes through SUI’s online system by credit card; in person at the Planning Board’s seat at the Roberto Sánchez Vilella Government Centre, Ave. De Diego, Stop 22, North Building, 14th Floor, San Juan; or by certified mail with return receipt to Junta de Planificación, Oficina de Presupuesto y Finanzas, P.O. Box 41119, San Juan PR 00940-1119. The deposit required before a reconsideration is made with the Board, in the account specially set up for it.

• Believing the fine is fixed: it is calculated from a base and a severity multiplier.
• Leaving the infraction standing, when each day it subsists counts as an independent violation.
• Letting a year pass on an expired permit, which turns the fault into absence of a permit.
• Seeking reconsideration without depositing the full fine with the Board.
• Thinking the fine is a personal debt and not a real lien on the property’s title.
• Making the cheque out to the Board instead of to the Secretary of the Treasury.
• Not noting the ticket number on the cheque or money order.
• Ignoring that interest runs until the fine is satisfied.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico (JP)

  Junta de Planificación

  docs.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Planning Board

  jp

  jp.pr.gov