Cement: what the bag must say and the bond that answers if it fails

It is Puerto Rico’s cement quality law, and for a buyer it has two useful things: a mandatory label you can read at the hardware store before paying, and a million-dollar bond the law requires manufacturers and importers to maintain, precisely to answer to third parties for damage caused by quality deficiencies.

Anyone who buys or uses cement in Puerto Rico. Those bound are every person engaged in manufacturing and importing any type of cement in Puerto Rico; the registration and bond duties fall on every manufacturer and wholesale importer.

• That it be cement manufactured in Puerto Rico or imported for use in Puerto Rico.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

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   Step 1: Read the bag before paying

   The law requires printing on each bag, in English and Spanish: the type of cement it contains and that it meets the quality requirements set by ASTM specifications in its Manual of Standards for that type; the name and address of the factory where it was produced; and, if imported, the importer’s name and domicile. If the bag lacks that, it does not comply.

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   Step 2: The warning on cement from abroad

   This is the part that matters most to anyone working on public works. For cement manufactured outside the United States or Puerto Rico, the bag must include a warning that, under the federal and Puerto Rico laws the statute cites, the cement may not be used in United States or Puerto Rico Government construction works, nor in works financed with those governments’ funds, except in the cases those laws specifically provide.

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   Step 3: One bag, one manufacturer

   The law bans it twice, from different angles. In the quality requirements: manufacturers and importers are barred from mixing different types of cement as well as mixing cement from different factories. And in the information requirements: a cement bag may not be filled with cement from more than one manufacturer.

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   Step 4: The semiannual literature in newspapers

   It is a little-known and verifiable duty: every person who manufactures or imports cement must prepare and print, for publication in two newspapers of wide circulation in Puerto Rico, every six (6) months, literature for each type of cement they make or import, with information on the cement’s characteristics and properties, storage recommendations, and the warnings necessary to avoid alkali-acid reactions when using it.

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   Step 5: The bond that answers for damage

   This is what to know if a job failed. Every manufacturer and wholesale importer must be registered with the Department of Consumer Affairs and, as part of that registration, maintain “a bond with minimum coverage of (1,000,000) dollars per person and (2,000,000) dollars per occurrence to ensure indemnification of third parties for any damage caused by deficiencies in the cement’s quality during the term provided by the Puerto Rico Civil Code.” That bond may also answer for administrative or judicial impositions for breaching the law if the violator does not do so within thirty (30) days after the decision becomes final, and it must be obtained from an insurance company certified by the Puerto Rico Insurance Commissioner.

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   Step 6: DACO inspects without notice

   The Department may carry out inspections, without prior notice, of cement manufactured in Puerto Rico: an official appears at the manufacturing plants and takes samples under the ASTM Manual of Standards, Specification C 183; the samples are divided into six parts, some sent to an independent laboratory and others retained by the Department in case additional analyses are needed. That power exists by law and is what gives a complaint its point.

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   Step 7: The fine is per event

   Any violation of this law, or of the regulations, orders or resolutions issued under it, shall be punished with a fine of no less than ten thousand (10,000) dollars and no more than thirty thousand (30,000) dollars, “per event.” It is among the highest fines in the consumer laws we cover.

The Department of Consumer Affairs is “the Department” of this law: it maintains the register of manufacturers and importers, receives the bond, inspects without notice and issues the regulations necessary to ensure compliance. The step by step of the complaint is in our DACO complaint guide. If your problem is with the contractor rather than the material, those are the contractor registry and repairs guides; if it is a hidden defect in a construction, that has its own guide.

• Buying without looking at the bag: the law requires type, factory and importer printed in Spanish and English.
• Using cement imported from outside the U.S. or PR on government works: the label must warn it may not be used there, except in the cases those laws provide.
• Accepting an unlabeled bag: the law prohibits distributing or selling it.
• Assuming that if the cement failed there is nobody to claim from: the law requires a bond of $1,000,000 per person and $2,000,000 per occurrence.
• Confusing a material problem with a contractor problem: they are different claims.
• Believing the fine is token: it runs from $10,000 to $30,000 per event.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO)

  DACO

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• DACO services

  DACO

  www.daco.pr.gov