You do not know where your land ends: fixing and marking boundaries

The Code separates them in an article of their own. The deslinde fixes where the limits are when they have become confused — an operation on the plan and on the ground. The amojonamiento places stable markers on those established limits: the boundary stones. They go in that order and serve different purposes, so asking for "a deslinde" when what you want is physical marks on the ground leaves the job half done. Both rest on a prior right the Code recognises in the preceding article: the owner has the right to close, fence and protect their plot by walls, fences, hedges or any other means compatible with the applicable special law, without prejudice to the easements and the legal and voluntary restrictions affecting the plot.

The owner has the right to fix and mark the boundaries of their plot, summoning the owners of adjoining plots. The same power belongs to those holding real rights over the plot, regardless of not possessing it — so possession is not required to request it. Summoning the abutters is not a courtesy: it is part of the procedure, and it is they who must appear with their titles.

• Being the plot’s owner or holding a real right over it, even without possessing it.Verified against the official source
• Summoning the owners of adjoining plots to the place, day and hour of the deslinde.Verified against the official source
• That the abutters appear, in person or by representatives, with sufficient titles of ownership supporting their right.Verified against the official source

• A sufficient title. The Code defines it for this purpose: one that adequately provides the plot’s area and the remaining data needed for its deslinde and amojonamiento. A deed that does not state the area does not meet that standard.
• If there are no sufficient titles: whatever evidences the possession the abutters are in, since the Code allows fixing the boundary from what that possession shows.

1. 1

   Step 1: Look at your title before the land

   A deslinde is settled first on paper. The Code requires the abutters to appear with sufficient titles of ownership supporting their right, and defines what counts as sufficient: one adequately providing the plot’s area and the remaining data needed for the deslinde and amojonamiento. If your deed does not state the area, or states it in a way that does not allow the boundaries to be located, you know where the problem starts. And if your deed’s area does not match the land itself, that has its own procedure — the rectificación de cabida before OGPe, with its own guide.

2. 2

   Step 2: Summon the abutters: it is not optional

   The right to fix and mark boundaries is exercised with the adjoining owners summoned, and the Code spells out the burden falling on them: they must appear, in person or by representatives, at the appointed place, day and hour, with sufficient titles of ownership supporting their right. A deslinde done behind a neighbour’s back does not match what the Code describes, and leaves the result open to challenge exactly once you have already paid the surveyor.

3. 3

   Step 3: Have the deslinde done by survey

   The Code imposes no single method: the deslinde may be carried out by any technical surveying procedure. What it does impose is the order of sources. First, sufficient titles. Failing those, the deslinde may be done from what the abutters’ possession shows. And only if the titles do not determine the boundary and the question cannot be resolved by possession or other evidence does the division rule come in.

4. 4

   Step 4: If nothing settles it, the Code does the arithmetic

   Two rules settle the matter rather than leaving it hanging. If the titles do not determine the boundary or the area belonging to each owner and the question cannot be resolved by possession or other evidence, the deslinde must be done by dividing the disputed ground in equal parts. And if the abutters’ titles indicate more or less space than the land as a whole comprises, the surplus or shortfall must be distributed proportionally. In other words: a title claiming too much does not hand anyone the whole portion, and where land is short, one owner does not absorb the loss alone.

5. 5

   Step 5: Mark it: put the markers in the ground

   Once the limits are fixed, the second act remains. Amojonamiento is the act of placing stable markers on the established limits. It is what stops the argument restarting in five years, and it is the difference between having a plan and having a boundary. And once marked, remember the right the Code recognises just before: you may close, fence and protect your plot with walls, fences, hedges or any other means compatible with the applicable special law, without prejudice to the easements and restrictions affecting it.

6. 6

   Step 6: Do not confuse "never prescribes" with "time does not matter"

   The Code says deslinde and amojonamiento actions are imprescriptible — and repeats it in the prescription title, declaring that the action to fix boundaries between adjoining properties does not prescribe. But it adds five decisive words: without prejudice to rights acquired by prescription. Translated: your deslinde action never lapses, but while you wait, the neighbour’s possession of the disputed strip may be turning into their ownership through the passage of time. Imprescriptibility protects the right to ask for the boundary, not the land.

The deslinde itself is done by a surveyor, by any technical surveying procedure, with the abutters summoned. If there is a conflict that titles and possession cannot resolve, the action goes to the Court of First Instance. Changes affecting the plot’s registry description are handled at the Registro de la Propiedad.

• Asking for the deslinde and stopping there: the amojonamiento is the separate act placing stable markers on the limits.
• Doing the deslinde without summoning the adjoining owners.
• Turning up with a deed that does not state the area: the Code requires a title providing the area and other necessary data.
• Believing possession outranks title: the Code turns to possession only where sufficient titles are lacking.
• Relying on the action never prescribing and letting years pass: imprescriptibility is without prejudice to acquisitive prescription.
• Expecting to keep the whole strip because your title says more metres: surplus or shortfall is distributed proportionally.
• Confusing the deslinde with the rectificación de cabida, a different procedure before OGPe.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov