Trees, windows and water: what the Code demands of you as a neighbour

It is Section One of Chapter III of Title III of Book Three of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 798 to 812. These are the restrictions the law imposes on every property by the mere fact of having neighbours, with nobody having agreed them. The Code itself warns they apply without prejudice to what other laws provide.

It applies to every owner of land and buildings. The planting distances apply "at the distance authorized by law and, failing that" at those the Code states, so a special law may set another.

• Devoting land and buildings to uses not incompatible with planning, and keeping and maintaining them in conditions of safety, healthfulness and public ornament.Verified against the official source
• Maintaining the buildings to avoid their ruin and the trees and branches that threaten to fall, so they harm neither another’s land nor passersby.Verified against the official source
• Building the roof so rainwater falls on one’s own land, and collecting it so it harms neither the adjoining lot nor the users of streets or public places.Verified against the official source
• Planting tall and medium trees two metres from the dividing line, and shrubs and small trees fifty centimetres, unless the law authorizes another distance.Verified against the official source
• Leaving one and a half metres between the wall and the neighbouring lot to open windows with direct views, balconies or other projections, and sixty centimetres for side or oblique views.Verified against the official source
• That light openings in a non-party wall be thirty centimetres square, at the height of the beams or immediately below the roofs, with a metal grille set into the wall and wire mesh.Verified against the official source
• Receiving on the lower lot the waters that naturally descend from the upper one, without making works that impede it; and not making from the upper lot works that aggravate it.Verified against the official source
• Consenting to the passage of materials or the placing of scaffolding on one’s own lot where indispensable to build, maintain or repair another’s building, with a right to indemnification.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Trees: two metres and fifty centimetres

   Trees may not be planted near a lot except at the distance authorized by law and, failing that, at two metres from the dividing line for tall and medium trees, and fifty centimetres for shrubs and small trees. The neighbouring owner may request, from the very moment of planting, the removal of trees planted at a lesser distance from their lot. There is no need to wait for them to grow.

2. 2

   Step 2: Branches are claimed, roots are cut

   Article 810’s asymmetry is worth memorizing. If the branches of some trees extend over a neighbouring lot, its owner has the right to claim they be cut as far as they extend over their property: to claim, not to cut. If it is the roots of the neighbouring trees that extend into another’s soil, the owner of the soil they enter may cut them themselves within their own lot. Mind the limit: the faculty to request the cutting of branches and roots or the removal of trees is subject to what the legislation on the matter provides, which this Code does not name and which we did not read for this guide.

3. 3

   Step 3: Trees in a party hedge

   Trees existing in a party hedge are also presumed party-owned. Either owner has the right to demand their felling, except where those trees serve as a boundary mark or sign, in which case they may only be removed by common agreement of the adjoining owners.

4. 4

   Step 4: Direct views and oblique views

   Windows with direct views, or balconies or other similar projections, may not be opened over the neighbour’s lot if there is not one and a half metres of distance between the wall in which they are built and that lot. Nor may there be side or oblique views over the neighbouring property without sixty centimetres. Distances are counted, for direct views, from the exterior line of the wall where there are no projections and from the line of those where there are; and for oblique ones, from the line of separation of the two properties. None of this applies to buildings separated by a public way, nor where translucent materials are used or the law provides otherwise.

5. 5

   Step 5: Light openings: thirty centimetres square

   Light is not the same as view. The owner of a non-party wall adjoining another’s land may open in it windows or openings to receive light at the height of the beams, or immediately below the roofs, of the dimensions of thirty centimetres square, and in every case with a metal grille set into the wall and wire mesh. But the owner of the adjoining land may close them if they acquire the medianería, absent a contrary pact, and may also cover them by building on their own land or raising a wall adjoining the one holding the opening.

6. 6

   Step 6: Roof water and water coming down the hill

   They are two different rules. The owner of a building must build its roof or cover so rainwater falls on their own land and not on the neighbouring lot; and even where it falls on their own land, they must collect it so it causes no harm to the adjoining lot or to the users of streets or public places. Natural water is different: lower lots must receive the waters that naturally descend from upper lots, as well as the earth or stone they carry; neither may the owner of the lower lot make works that impede it, nor the owner of the upper one works that aggravate it.

7. 7

   Step 7: Defensive works against water

   The owner of a lot that may be harmed by waters descending from upper lots may erect defensive works at their own cost to contain or divert the water, provided it does not harm third parties’ rights. And the owner of a lot where defensive works exist, or where the change of course makes new ones necessary, must, at their election, make the repairs or constructions needed, or tolerate that they be made — without harm to them — by the owners of the lots that suffer damage or are manifestly exposed to suffering it.

8. 8

   Step 8: Imminent danger and scaffolding on another’s land

   Two temporary permissions the law imposes. The owner may not prevent acts being carried out on their lot for provisional services of neighbouring properties that avoid or avert a present or imminent danger, but they will be indemnified for the damages caused. And if to build, maintain or repair a building it is indispensable to pass materials through another’s lot or to place scaffolding or other objects on it, that lot’s owner is obliged to consent, and is entitled to indemnification for the harm suffered. The passage or occupation must be requested or judicially demanded where the need is appreciated, except where the governor has decreed a state of emergency and a public service must be restored.

9. 9

   Step 9: The ruinous house and the tree that threatens to fall

   The owner of an immovable must maintain the buildings to avoid their ruin, and the trees and branches on their property that threaten to fall, to prevent harm to another’s land or to passersby on a public or private way. If they do not comply, any person with a legitimate interest may demand the repair, demolition, cutting or adoption of preventive measures; and if the owner does not do it, the authority may do it at their cost. It is the Code’s route for the abandoned house next door and the tree about to fall on the sidewalk.

Claims between neighbours are heard in the Court of First Instance. For a ruinous house or a tree threatening to fall, any person with a legitimate interest may demand it of the owner, and if they do not act, the authority may do it at their cost.

• Cutting the neighbour’s branches yourself: the Code gives you the right to claim they be cut, not to do it.
• Planting a tall tree closer than two metres from the boundary and trusting nobody will say anything: removal may be requested from the day of planting.
• Opening a window with a direct view closer than one and a half metres from the neighbouring lot.
• Confusing the thirty-centimetre light opening with a window: the opening goes with a metal grille set into the wall and wire mesh.
• Channelling roof water onto the lot next door.
• Blocking with a wall or fill the water that naturally comes down from the upper lot.
• Refusing the neighbour the passage of materials or the scaffolding when they are indispensable to repair their building.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov