Moved out for a public works project: who pays the move

This is a short law — four articles — about the money that goes separately from the property’s price. When you are expropriated for a road or a public work, the payment for the property is one thing; moving your furniture and equipment is another, and this law authorizes paying it. It also adds a second, more specific item for the owner who lives in their home when the acquisition value is low. The figures the law writes are the 1966 ones, and the text itself orders them adjusted every two years.

For moving expenses: those persons obliged to move from properties acquired for the construction of public works or transit facilities. The law distinguishes two categories with different ceilings — an individual or family on one hand, and businesses and non-profit organizations on the other — but does not require being the owner: it speaks of the persons obliged to move. For the second compensation, in Article 2, the requirements are narrower and must be read together: it is directed at **home owners who live in them** — owner and resident at once — and **when the acquisition value does not exceed** the ceiling the law sets. Both compensations are subject to the rules the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works and the Highway Authority authorize.

• Being obliged to move from a property acquired for the construction of a public work or transit facility.Verified against the official source
• For Article 2’s additional compensation: being the owner of a home you live in, and the acquisition value not exceeding the ceiling the law sets, subject to the biennial adjustment.Verified against the official source

• Evidence of the expenses you incurred moving your personal property: the law speaks of compensating expenses incurred, so the moving invoices and receipts are the claim’s basis.

1. 1

   Step 1: These are two separate compensations, not one

   Separate them from the start because they have different requirements and ceilings. The first, in Article 1, is for **the expenses of moving your personal property**, and belongs to persons obliged to move from properties acquired for the construction of public works or transit facilities. The second, in Article 2, is for **damages not compensated by the payment of the property’s market value**, is paid **in addition to the acquisition value**, and belongs only to home owners who live in them when the acquisition value does not exceed that provision’s ceiling. The law expressly says that second compensation shall be given **in addition** to the moving expenses Article 1 sets: it is not one instead of the other.

2. 2

   Step 2: The figures the law writes, and why they are not today’s

   Precision matters here, because publishing an old figure as if it were current would mislead you. Article 1’s text says the payments shall not exceed the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000) for an individual or family, and six thousand dollars ($6,000) for businesses and non-profit organizations. Article 2 says up to two thousand dollars ($2,000) in addition to the acquisition value, when the acquisition value does not exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000). And Article 3 says what changes all of that: **the compensations established in Articles 1 and 2 of this Act shall be adjusted every two (2) years in accordance with the cost of living increase indices, as established by the Planning Board of Puerto Rico**. That is, the four figures above are the 1966 bases. The current amounts come from applying those biennial adjustments, and those numbers **are not in the law**: you have to ask the agency for them. We publish the bases because they are the text, and we say clearly they are not the final figure.

3. 3

   Step 3: Where the money comes from

   Article 1 says it and it is useful to know because it explains who to claim from: the compensation is made **charged to the funds allocated for public works or transit facility programs**, as applicable. It is not a separate assistance program with its own budget: it comes from the same money as the project that forced you to move. That is why the two authorized to pay are precisely the two that execute those works: the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works and the Highway Authority.

4. 4

   Step 4: The compensation for the owner living in their home

   Article 2 is more specific than it looks at first and is worth breaking down. It authorizes compensating **for damages not compensated by the payment of the property’s market value** — that is, for what the market price did not cover — **in addition to the acquisition value**, and only **to home owners who live in them**. It also has a threshold condition: **when the acquisition value does not exceed** the provision’s ceiling. And the law says who decides the amount: this compensation shall be determined by the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works or the Highway Authority, as applicable, in accordance with the rules it sets to that effect, **for the purpose of helping people be relocated**. That closing phrase is the criterion the law gives the agency, and it is useful for arguing the claim.

5. 5

   Step 5: The agency’s rules govern the detail

   Both substantive articles end by deferring to the agency. Article 1 says these payments shall be **subject to the rules authorized by** the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works and the Highway Authority. Article 2 says the compensation shall be determined by the Secretary or the Authority **in accordance with the rules it sets to that effect**. That is: the law authorizes the payment and sets the ceilings; how it is applied for, what evidence is accepted, and how long it takes to resolve are in those rules, which we did not read and which must be requested from the agency. That is why this guide publishes no step-by-step procedure: it would be inventing one.

Before the Department of Transportation and Public Works or the Highway Authority, depending on which of the two is executing the project for which you are being moved. The law authorizes both, and the payment comes from the funds allocated to the corresponding public works or transit facility program. It is that same agency you must ask for two things the law does not publish: the rules governing the application, and the current amounts after Article 3’s biennial adjustments. What we do not publish: a form, a specific office, a phone number or a resolution deadline, because Act 94-1966 does not name them and defers to the agency’s rules.

• Assuming the payment for the property includes the move: they are separate items and the law treats them separately.
• Taking the text’s $1,000, $6,000, $2,000 and $20,000 as current figures: they are the bases, and Article 3 orders them adjusted every two years.
• Claiming only one compensation when both apply: Article 2’s is given in addition to Article 1’s.
• Not keeping moving invoices and receipts, which are the evidence of the expense incurred.
• Believing Article 2’s compensation is for any owner: it is for home owners who live in them and under an acquisition-value ceiling.
• Not asking the agency for its rules, which is where the procedure the law does not detail lives.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)

  DTOP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP)

  DTOP

  www.dtop.pr.gov