In short
By the donation contract the donor undertakes to gratuitously deliver and transfer to the recipient the ownership of an asset. It sounds simple and is not: the 2020 Civil Code sets formalities whose breach voids the donation at the root. If you gift an immovable, it must be in a public deed describing the asset, its value and any charges the recipient must satisfy, under penalty of radical nullity. If you gift a movable, it may be verbal only if delivery is simultaneous; if it is not, a private instrument describing and valuing the asset is required, also under penalty of radical nullity. And the donation produces no effect until the recipient accepts, and the donor must learn of that acceptance while both are alive. There are two ceilings: the donation is valid only if you reserve, in ownership or usufruct, assets sufficient for your subsistence, and nobody may give by donation more than they could dispose of by will. Undoing a donation is difficult on purpose: the Code lists six causes of revocation and gives barely 6 months from learning of the cause to exercise the faculty.
What is it?
The Code defines it as the contract by which the donor undertakes to gratuitously deliver and transfer to the recipient the ownership of an asset. Acts that are partly for value and partly gratuitous are governed, as to form, by the provisions of this title under penalty of nullity; as to content, by the donation rules for the gratuitous part and by whichever rules apply to the part for value. That distinction between a pure donation and an onerous one — the kind that imposes charges on the recipient — recurs later in the donor’s liability and is worth being clear about from the start.
Who can do it?
Beyond the general capacity to contract, the donor must have capacity to dispose of their assets, and that capacity is judged at the moment they offer the donation and at the moment they learn of the acceptance, even if they lost it in between for some reason. On the recipient’s side, capacity is judged when they accept. A donation made to an incapacitated person is radically void when it has not been accepted by their legal representatives or by a special guardian — if those representatives are the donors — or when it is partly onerous and lacks court authorization. And there is an express prohibition: parents, guardians or any other person to whose authority someone is subject cannot receive donations from them until the patria potestad, guardianship or that authority relationship ends and the prospective recipient renders the accounts the law requires.
Requirements
- The donor’s capacity to dispose of their assets, judged both when offering the donation and when learning of the acceptance.Verified against the official source
- Acceptance by the recipient, known to the donor while both are alive: without it the donation produces no effect.Verified against the official source
- A public deed if the asset is an immovable, describing the asset, its value and the charges the recipient must satisfy. Without it, radical nullity.Verified against the official source
- That the donor reserve, in ownership or usufruct, assets sufficient for their subsistence.Verified against the official source
- That the donation not exceed what the donor could dispose of by will: whatever exceeds that measure must be reduced.Verified against the official source
- That the asset be present and owned by the donor: a donation may only cover the donor’s present assets.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: Check that you can give it
Three limits before anything else. First, a donation may only cover the donor’s present assets, provided they own them: future assets cannot be donated. Second, a donation is valid only when the donor reserves for themselves, in ownership or usufruct, assets sufficient for their subsistence. Third, nobody may give by donation more than they could dispose of by will, and the donation must be reduced by whatever exceeds that measure. That third limit connects to the forced share: if you have forced heirs, what you may freely dispose of is half, and what you give now counts against that half.
Step 2: Choose the correct form for the asset
This is where donations are lost. Under penalty of radical nullity, the donation of an immovable must be in a public deed describing the donated asset, its value and any charges the recipient must satisfy. The donation of a movable may be verbal provided delivery of the asset is simultaneous with the donation; if delivery is not simultaneous, the donation must be in a private instrument describing and valuing the asset, also under penalty of radical nullity. The donation may be executed in one instrument or in separate ones, and when done by separate public deeds, each must state the execution of the other.
Step 3: Secure acceptance while both are alive
The donation produces no effect until the recipient accepts, and the donor must learn of that acceptance while both are alive. A donation offered and not accepted, or accepted after the donor’s death, transfers nothing. If the donation is offered to more than one person, it must be accepted by each prospective recipient in their corresponding quota; absent a different indication, it is understood made in equal parts and without a right of accrual. The exception is a donation made jointly to both spouses: there a right of accrual does exist, unless the donor provides otherwise.
Step 4: Deliver the asset and know what you warrant
Absent a different agreement, the donor must deliver the donated asset as soon as the recipient asks, and the recipient is entitled to the fruits from receiving the asset, save bad faith, in which case from the moment delivery was requested. A donor whose fortune has declined after the donation and before delivery may be excused from delivering to the extent necessary for their own support. On warranties, the donor answers far less than a seller: they answer for eviction only when they expressly assumed that obligation, when the donation was made in bad faith and the recipient knew it, when the eviction arises from the donor’s own cause, or when the donation is onerous. And they answer for hidden defects only when the donation is onerous or was made in bad faith.
Step 5: If you want to undo it: revoke only for the causes in the law
The Code lists six and there are no others: breach of the charges imposed on the recipient; any of the causes of unworthiness to inherit; any of the causes of disinheritance; when a childless donor has a child born to them; when the donor has no descendants and the donation’s text states the resolutory condition of the survival of a descendant the donor believed dead; and the recipient’s refusal to provide support to the donor when the donor could not obtain it from those obliged by family relations. The terms are short and are caducidad terms: the revocatory faculty cannot be waived before the triggering fact occurs and lapses 6 months after the donor learns the cause arose. If the revocation is communicated extrajudicially to the recipient or their heirs — with the cause unmistakably stated — and they do not contradict it within 60 days, it is consummated; if they contradict it in time, the revocatory action lapses 6 months from the contradiction. The donor does not transmit the faculty to revoke to their heirs, but the heirs may substitute for the donor in an action already filed.
Step 6: Handle the tax side separately
The Civil Code settles the donation’s validity and civil effects, not taxes. Gifting above a certain amount triggers the gift tax return before Treasury, and gifting real property creates the same recording problem inheriting it does: a release is needed to record the property in the beneficiary’s name and to sell or refinance it afterwards. That has its own PRFácil guide and must be handled even if the deed is flawless.
Where to do it
The donation of an immovable is executed before a notary, by public deed. That of a movable with simultaneous delivery may be done without papers; without simultaneous delivery, by private instrument. Revocation may be communicated extrajudicially to the recipient or their heirs, or exercised before the Court of First Instance. The tax side is handled before the Department of the Treasury.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
If you "gave away" a house with a document signed between you, review it now: the donation of an immovable without a public deed is radically void. If you offered a donation and the person never said anything, there is no donation: it produces no effect until acceptance, and the donor must learn of it while both are alive. If you gave away almost everything and now cannot manage, the Code required you to reserve assets sufficient for your subsistence, and it also lets you be excused from delivering to the extent needed for your own support if your fortune declined before delivery. If your heirs claim you gave too much, reduction is the route — and only forced heirs may request it; the donation closest in date to the death is reduced first, or pro rata if they share a date, with prospective effect. If you want to revoke, count the months: 6 from learning of the cause, and only for the six causes the law lists. And if what you want is to leave assets for after your death, the instrument is not a donation but a will.
Common mistakes
- Gifting an immovable with a private document or a mere verbal agreement: without a public deed there is radical nullity.
- Gifting a movable without delivering it and without a document: if delivery is not simultaneous, a private instrument describing and valuing the asset is required.
- Assuming the donation is done without the recipient accepting: it produces no effect until acceptance known to the donor while both are alive.
- Giving everything away: the donation is valid only if you reserve, in ownership or usufruct, assets sufficient for your subsistence.
- Ignoring the testamentary ceiling: nobody may give by donation more than they could dispose of by will, and the excess is reduced.
- Believing it can be revoked because you changed your mind: the Code lists six causes and none is regret.
- Letting the 6 months from learning of the revocation cause pass: the faculty lapses.
- Ignoring the 60 days to contradict a revocation communicated extrajudicially: if not contradicted, it is consummated.
- Handling the deed and forgetting the gift tax return and the release before Treasury.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put the house in my child’s name with a signed paper?
No. Under penalty of radical nullity, the donation of an immovable must be in a public deed describing the donated asset, its value and any charges the recipient must satisfy. A private paper does not meet that requirement, and separately there is the tax side before Treasury.
Can I take back what I gave?
Only for the six causes the Code lists: breach of the charges imposed on the recipient, any of the causes of unworthiness to inherit, any of the disinheritance causes, a child being born to a childless donor, the resolutory condition of a descendant believed dead surviving when so stated in the donation, and the recipient’s refusal to support a donor who could not obtain it from the family members obliged. And there is a clock: the faculty lapses 6 months after the donor learns the cause arose.
Does the donation remove assets from my estate?
The Code sets the ceiling the other way: nobody may give by donation more than they could dispose of by will, and the donation must be reduced by whatever exceeds that measure. When reduction is needed, the donation closest in date to the donor’s death is reduced first, or pro rata if they share a date, with prospective effect. And only forced heirs may request the reduction.
If the recipient dies, does it come back to me?
Only if you agreed to it. The donor and recipient may agree that the donated asset reverts to the donor. But once the donor authorizes the recipient or their heirs to transfer or encumber the asset, the reversion right is deemed waived. The reversion action is not transferable, prescribes 6 months after the donor learns of the recipient’s death, and lapses 2 years after that death.
Is the recipient of a donation obliged to pay my debts?
When the donation imposes on the recipient the obligation to pay the donor’s debts, those debts only include the ones existing at the time of the donation. When there is no agreement about debts, the recipient is obliged to pay them only if the donation was made in fraud of creditors — and the Code presumes that fraud when the donor did not reserve assets sufficient to pay debts incurred before the execution.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico
Poder Judicial
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
Last verified
August 16, 2026
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