Challenging your condominium Board: 30 days and a new court

It is the mechanism an owner uses to fight a condominium decision: a special assessment you consider illegal, an assembly agreement, an act of the Board or of the managing agent, or an omission. Until 2026 many of these residential disputes went to DACO. Act 157-2026, approved on July 31, 2026, moved them to a specialized court division and gave it exclusive jurisdiction, without distinguishing between commercial, residential or mixed-use condominiums. The Judicial Branch is the one that must create that Specialized Division in each judicial region and is empowered to appoint the necessary personnel and adopt the adjudication rules.

Apartment owners. And Article 65 sets two admission conditions worth resolving before filing. First: you must show you have no debt of any kind with the Council of Owners and that you delivered to the Board of Directors a copy of the document by which you acquired your apartment. The only exception to the no-debt requirement is when the challenge is precisely to question the debt you allegedly owe. Second, if what you are challenging is an agreement of the Council of Owners: you must show you were present or represented at the assembly where the agreement was taken and that you voted against it; if you were absent despite having been duly notified, you must prove your absence was justified.

• That the act, omission or agreement falls under one of Article 65’s three grounds.Verified against the official source
• Showing you have no debt with the Council of Owners, unless the challenge is precisely to question that debt.Verified against the official source
• Having delivered to the Board of Directors a copy of the document by which you acquired your apartment.Verified against the official source
• If challenging a Council agreement: having been present or represented at the assembly and having voted against, or proving your absence was justified.Verified against the official source

• A copy of the document by which you acquired the apartment, which the law requires you to have delivered to the Board.
• The notice of the agreement or determination with its date, because the thirty days run from there if you were not present.
• The master deed and the condominium bylaws, which are — alongside the law — the standard against which the challenged act is measured.

1. 1

   Step 1: Confirm you are going to the right forum

   This is the 2026 change and the costliest one to get wrong. Owners of apartments in condominiums for commercial, residential or mixed use must file the challenge before the Specialized Division for Adjudication of Condominium Controversies of the Court of First Instance of the judicial region where the condominium is located, which has exclusive jurisdiction. Act 157-2026 established this on July 31, 2026. If your guidance predates that date, verify it before filing.

2. 2

   Step 2: Identify which of the three grounds applies

   The law lists three and it is worth stating which one you invoke: (a) that the act, omission or agreement is contrary to the Condominium Act, the master deed or the condominium bylaws; (b) that it is gravely prejudicial to the community’s interests or to an owner; or (c) that it is gravely prejudicial to an owner who has no legal obligation to bear it and that was not foreseeable at the time of purchase. Note the adverb in the second and third grounds: gravely.

3. 3

   Step 3: Resolve the debt before filing

   The law requires the owner who wants to challenge to show they have no debt of any kind with the Council of Owners. It is an admission requirement, not a detail: if you owe fees, the challenge falls there. The only exception the text recognizes is when the challenge is precisely to question the debt you allegedly owe. And there is a second paperwork requirement: having delivered to the Board a copy of the document by which you acquired your apartment.

4. 4

   Step 4: Count the thirty days from the right point

   For every type of challenge there are thirty (30) days counted from the date the agreement or determination was taken, if it happened in your presence; or within the thirty (30) days following the date you receive notice of the agreement, if you were not present when it was reached. Keep the envelope, the email or the delivery record: the receipt date is what makes the term measurable.

5. 5

   Step 5: Do not confuse the 30 days with the 2 years

   They are different things and the law treats them in separate paragraphs. When the action challenging agreements, acts or omissions of the Board of Directors, the Interim Administrator, the Managing Agent or the Council of Owners constitutes violations of this Act, of the master deed or of the condominium bylaws, it prescribes in two (2) years. That term is computed from the date the act, omission or agreement was taken if it was in your presence, or from notice if it was not, and the agreement must have been notified in accordance with the law’s provisions.

6. 6

   Step 6: If the dispute is about insurance, it goes elsewhere

   Article 66 separates it expressly: without prejudice to the foregoing or to any judicial actions that may be filed, every complaint related to the coverage or the terms and conditions of the insurance contract shall be referred to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner of Puerto Rico for its consideration, and the Commissioner is empowered to adopt or modify the regulations needed to adjudicate complaints arising under the Horizontal Property Regime.

7. 7

   Step 7: Know what happens with costs

   Two rules from the article itself. The court hearing the challenge actions shall impose costs and attorney’s fees on the party that acted recklessly. And an owner who prevails on any claim in their complaint shall not have to contribute to the fees or legal expenses incurred by the Board or the Council of Owners, nor to any fine imposed on the respondent party. That second rule avoids the absurd situation of winning and then paying, through your share, for the defense of the side that lost.

Before the Specialized Division for Adjudication of Condominium Controversies of the Court of First Instance of the judicial region where the condominium is located, which has had exclusive jurisdiction since Act 157-2026. The Judicial Branch is the one that must create that division in each judicial region, appoint the necessary personnel and adopt the adjudication rules, so if you cannot locate it in your region yet, ask at your region’s Court of First Instance before assuming it does not exist. Complaints about insurance coverage or contract terms are referred to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

• Filing at DACO: since Act 157-2026 the Specialized Division of the Court of First Instance has exclusive jurisdiction.
• Letting the thirty days run while looking for the right forum.
• Challenging while owing fees, when the law requires showing you have no debt with the Council of Owners.
• Not having delivered to the Board a copy of the document by which you acquired the apartment.
• Challenging an assembly agreement without having been present or represented and without having voted against.
• Confusing the 30-day window to challenge with the 2-year prescription for violations of the law, the deed or the bylaws.
• Taking to that division a dispute that is about insurance coverage, which the law refers to the Insurance Commissioner.
• Relying on guidance predating July 31, 2026 without verifying it.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Judicial Branch of Puerto Rico

  Rama Judicial

  poderjudicial.pr