Barter: swapping one thing for another with no price between them

It is Chapter II of Title II of Book Five of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 1293 to 1296: the contract by which two parties exchange things or rights, with or without money in between, and what happens if one of them loses what they received.

Anyone exchanging a thing or a right for another in Puerto Rico under the Civil Code, with or without money on top.

• That the parties bind themselves to deliver and reciprocally transfer ownership of a thing or right, to receive another of proportional value.Verified against the official source
• If money is involved, that its value be less than that of the thing or right exchanged; if equal or greater, the contract is a sale.Verified against the official source
• For the remedy of Article 1295: to have suffered eviction of the thing received as the object of the permuta.Verified against the official source
• To claim back what was given: that the thing still be in the other party’s hands.Verified against the official source

• The Code requires no document here; in what is not provided, the rules of sale govern, and they leave form free unless a special statute applies.
• A record of what each party gave and of the values, because whether the contract is a permuta or a sale depends on that comparison.

1. 1

   Step 1: What a permuta is

   Article 1293: the parties bind themselves to deliver and reciprocally transfer to each other the ownership of a thing or a right in order to receive another thing or right of proportional value. There is no buyer and no seller: there are two who swap.

2. 2

   Step 2: With money on top, it depends how much

   The same article: also considered a permuta is the exchange of a thing or right for another thing or right plus money where the value of the money is less than that of the thing or right exchanged. Where the value of the money is equal or greater, the contract is a sale.

3. 3

   Step 3: What the chapter does not say, the sale rules do

   Article 1293 closes: in everything not provided in this Chapter, the rules of sale govern. That is why this chapter can be only four articles long.

4. 4

   Step 4: Each one answers as a seller

   Article 1294: each party has the obligations of a seller. To deliver, to transfer ownership, to guarantee the qualities, to hand over the documents: all of it, on both sides at once.

5. 5

   Step 5: The expenses, split down the middle

   The exception in the same article: except as to the expenses, which must be assumed in equal parts by each of the parties. In a sale the expenses are allocated by who chooses the notary; here they are split evenly.

6. 6

   Step 6: If what you received is taken from you

   Article 1295: the party who suffers eviction of the thing received as the object of the permuta may claim back the one they gave, if it is still in the other party’s hands, or demand its economic value. The condition for the first route is written: that the thing still be with the other party.

7. 7

   Step 7: And in both cases, the damages

   The same article adds that, in both cases, compensation for damages lies, in accordance with liability for saneamiento. What that liability is the Code does not repeat here: it lives in the saneamiento chapter, with its own guide.

8. 8

   Step 8: A good-faith third party keeps the thing

   Article 1296: the foregoing does not prejudice the rights of a third party who acquires in good faith and for value the thing claimed by the party affected by the eviction. Two requirements, both in the text: good faith and acquisition for value.

A permuta is executed between the parties; the Code orders no trip to any agency. If what is exchanged is real property to be registered, or a vehicle to be retitled, that runs through the Property Registry or DTOP with their own rules, which we did not read here. Disputes are decided by the Court of First Instance.

• Calling a permuta the exchange in which the money is worth the same or more than the thing: that contract is a sale.
• Believing nobody guarantees anything in a permuta: each party has a seller’s obligations.
• Splitting the expenses as in a sale: in a permuta they are assumed in equal parts.
• Claiming back the thing given when it is no longer in the other party’s hands: then the route is to demand its economic value.
• Forgetting that, in both cases, compensation for damages also lies.
• Chasing the thing in the hands of a third party who acquired it in good faith and for value.
• Assuming the chapter regulates everything: in what is not provided, the rules of sale govern.
• Recording values that do not reflect what was exchanged: how the contract is classified depends on that comparison.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov