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Housing

Your deed carries CRUV conditions and they are blocking the sale

Last reviewed: August 15, 2026 — VerifiedVivienda

In short

The Urban Renewal and Housing Corporation, CRUV, was the public corporation in charge of administering and developing low-cost housing in Puerto Rico. When it sold or transferred a property, it imposed restrictive conditions in the deed: limits on whom it can be sold to, when, and for what use. CRUV no longer exists — Act 106 of 30 June 1998 ordered the closure of the Office for the Liquidation of its Accounts and transferred the remaining records and assets to the Housing Department — but the conditions it set are still written into thousands of titles. So when someone goes to sell, refinance, mortgage or simply clear title, they need the Housing Department to authorise the transaction or remove the conditions. The Department publishes the seven documents it requires: a copy of the extinct CRUV deed setting out the restrictive conditions; an updated title study or registry certification no more than six months old; the payoff balance of the mortgage constituted with the extinct CRUV; a bank letter stating loan type, amount and purpose, if a loan is in process; a letter explaining the reasons for selling, if selling; in a divorce, the judgment, the marital-property stipulation and the deed of division; and in a death, the death certificate and the declaration of heirs or resolution. The Department’s notice is blunt: incomplete applications are not processed, no exceptions for anyone.

External link

Go to the official site

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www.vivienda.pr.gov

What is it?

It is permission to do something with your own house that the deed restricts. CRUV’s restrictive conditions are clauses recorded when the corporation sold the low-cost home, meant to keep those houses in the hands of the families they were aimed at. The practical problem arrives decades later: the bank will not refinance, the notary will not close the sale, or the title comes back encumbered in a search, and nobody knows whom to ask. The answer is the Housing Department, which inherited CRUV’s records and powers. Watch the official page: under the same Acquisition and sale of properties heading live two different filings. One is this, the authorization on restrictive conditions. The other is the Application to Acquire Property, which is for buying a property *from* the Department and asks for completely different documents.

Who can do it?

The Department does not publish on this page who may apply or an express ownership requirement, but the document list says it indirectly: the extinct CRUV deed recording the conditions is required, together with an up-to-date registry certification or title study. The page contemplates four situations: selling, refinancing, mortgaging and removing the restrictive conditions. And it contemplates two family situations with their own documents: divorce and death of the titleholder. This guide adds no eligibility condition the source does not impose.

Requirements

Documents you need

Cost

Check the current cost with the official agency.

Step by step

  1. Step 1: Confirm that what you have is a CRUV condition

    The clue is in the deed: a segregation, sale or donation deed granted by the extinct Urban Renewal and Housing Corporation, with clauses limiting sale, use or transfer. If you do not have the deed to hand, the title study or registry certification will surface it, and one of those two documents is required anyway, up to date and no more than six months old. If the condition comes from another entity — a residents’ association, a bank, another agency — this is not the filing.

  2. Step 2: Gather the seven documents, and do not send fewer

    The Department’s notice is in capitals for a reason: incomplete applications are not processed, no exceptions for anyone. The first three documents always apply — the CRUV deed with the conditions, the up-to-date title study or registry certification, and the payoff balance of the mortgage with the extinct CRUV. The other four depend on your case: bank letter if a loan is in process; letter with the reasons if you are selling; divorce judgment, stipulation and deed of division if there was a divorce; death certificate and declaration of heirs if the titleholder died.

  3. Step 3: Send it by email, by post or in person

    The Department gives three routes. By email to jbellaflores@vivienda.pr.gov. By post to PO Box 363468, San Juan, PR 00936-3468. Or delivered in person at building 606, 4th floor, Hato Rey, Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 11:00 in the morning and 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon. Note the hours: two windows totalling three and a half hours a day, closed over midday. For questions the page gives (787) 274-2527 extensions 2227 and 2220, or 787-759-1950.

  4. Step 4: Do not confuse this with buying a property from the Department

    On the same page is the Application to Acquire Property, which is a different filing: it is for buying a property *from* the Housing Department, not for lifting a condition on yours. That form asks for photo identification with signature — preferably a driver’s licence —, an up-to-date bank pre-qualification no more than six months old or a statement of financial condition, a certified copy of incorporation and a resolution if the applicant is an entity, and a marriage certificate if applicable. It also asks the payment method — cash, Banco de la Vivienda or a private bank — and the proposed use of the property. If your problem is an old clause on your deed, that is not your form. And if what you want is the inventory of properties available for sale, the Department handles that on the direct line 787-759-1950 or by email to bgonzalez@vivienda.pr.gov.

Where to do it

Housing Department, Acquisition and Sale of Properties Secretariat. By email to jbellaflores@vivienda.pr.gov, by post to PO Box 363468, San Juan, PR 00936-3468, or in person at building 606, 4th floor, Hato Rey, Monday to Friday 8:00-11:00 am and 1:00-3:00 pm. Telephone (787) 274-2527, extensions 2227 and 2220, or 787-759-1950. If it is closer to you, the Department has ten regional offices and this site carries the directory.

How long it takes

Check the current processing time with the official agency.

What to do if something goes wrong

What could not be read, and is therefore not asserted: Regulation 9047, which the page itself links as the applicable regulation, is a 38-page scanned PDF with no text layer, and there is no OCR in this environment. This guide cites no rule from it. Act 106 of 30 June 1998 was read: it ordered the closure of the Office for the Liquidation of CRUV Accounts and provided for the transfer of the remaining assets and records to the Housing Department — which is where the Department’s competence comes from — but that statute does not contain the restrictive-conditions procedure. What is also not published: what the filing costs, how long it takes, whether a denial can be appealed and by what route, and what happens if the original CRUV mortgage was never formally cancelled. None of that is invented here; ask on the telephone number the page gives. A practical warning: the registry certification or title study must be recent, no more than six months old, so do not order them until the rest is ready. And the most important warning is the Department’s own: incomplete applications are not processed, no exceptions for anyone.

Common mistakes

  • Sending an incomplete application: the Department warns it does not process incomplete applications, no exceptions.
  • Ordering the title study too early and arriving with one more than six months old.
  • Using the Application to Acquire Property, which is for buying from the Department, not for lifting conditions on your house.
  • Starting the sale closing or refinancing assuming the authorization comes quickly: no term is published.
  • Forgetting the payoff balance of the mortgage constituted with the extinct CRUV.
  • In a succession, presenting only the death certificate without the declaration of heirs or the resolution.
  • After a divorce, presenting the judgment without the marital-property stipulation and the deed of division.
  • Arriving in person after 11:00 am without knowing the office closes until 1:00 pm.

Frequently asked questions

What is CRUV and why does it affect me if it no longer exists?

The Urban Renewal and Housing Corporation was a public corporation in charge of administering and developing low-cost housing. Act 106 of 30 June 1998 ordered the closure of the office liquidating its accounts and transferred the remaining assets and records to the Housing Department. The restrictive conditions CRUV recorded in the deeds are still there, and today it is the Department that handles them.

How much does it cost and how long does it take?

The page publishes neither a fee nor a term, and the regulation it links is a scan with no text layer that could not be read. This guide gives neither figure. Ask at (787) 274-2527, extensions 2227 or 2220.

My mother died and the house has CRUV conditions. What do I take?

Besides the three documents that always apply — the CRUV deed with the conditions, the title study or registry certification no more than six months old, and the payoff balance of the mortgage with the extinct CRUV —, for a death the page requires a copy of the death certificate and the declaration of heirs or the resolution.

Official sources

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

Last verified

August 15, 2026

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