In short
Sections 2.1.9.7 and 2.1.9.8 of Joint Regulation No. 9473 settle the two questions that derail the most permit applications: whom to notify and how to prove notification. On whom: if the adjoining property is a condominium under the horizontal property regime, the postal address of the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association is provided; if the adjoining side is an access road or a body of water, the properties on the other side of that road or water must be included, unless the body of water has a distance greater than five hundred metres, in which case such notification is not necessary; if the adjoining owner has access control, besides them the Association’s address is included; and if the public infrastructure work will be on an easement strip inside a holding, the owner to notify is that of the servient lot. On how: adequate notification is that sent to the adjoining owners’ addresses on record at the CRIM, attaching evidence of certified mailing in the digital file. It may be substituted by personal delivery, taking a receipt with name, physical address and signature. And where an immediate adjoining owner’s postal address is not accessible at the CRIM, it may be delivered to the property’s occupant with a certification of the missing information and of the delivery; if it is unoccupied or the occupant cannot be located, a certification of that and of the efforts made is filed.
What is it?
These are Sections 2.1.9.7 and 2.1.9.8 of Chapter 2.1 of Joint Regulation No. 9473. The first defines who counts as an adjoining owner for the purpose of notifying a permit application; the second, what is accepted as adequate notification and what to do when the neighbour’s address does not appear. The list of adjoining owners with names, postal addresses and emails is a filing requirement in discretionary, adjudicative and quasi-legislative matters.
Who can do it?
It applies to whoever files a permit application that requires notifying adjoining owners, and defines the universe of people to notify: the immediate adjoining owner; the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association where the adjoining property is a condominium under the horizontal property regime or where the adjoining owner has access control; the properties on the other side where the adjoining side is an access road or a body of water; and the servient lot’s owner where the public infrastructure work is carried out on an easement strip inside a holding.
Requirements
- If the adjoining property is a condominium under the horizontal property regime: providing the postal address of the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association.Verified against the official source
- Where the adjoining side is an access road or a body of water: including the properties on the other side of that road or body of water.Verified against the official source
- Where the body of water has a distance greater than five hundred (500) metres: such notification is not necessary.Verified against the official source
- Where the adjoining owner or owners have access control: besides them, including the address of the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association.Verified against the official source
- Where a public infrastructure work will be carried out on an easement strip inside a holding: notifying the owner of the easement’s servient lot.Verified against the official source
- Sending the notification to the adjoining owners’ addresses on record at the CRIM and attaching evidence in the digital file of mailing by certified mail.Verified against the official source
- If certified mail is substituted by personal delivery: taking a receipt recording the name, the physical address and the signature of the person notified certifying they are the property’s titleholder.Verified against the official source
- If the immediate adjoining owner’s postal address is not accessible at the CRIM and the property is inhabited: delivering personally to the occupant and attaching a certification of the missing CRIM information and of the delivery, with name, delivery date and the place’s physical address.Verified against the official source
- If the property is unoccupied or its occupant cannot be located: filing a certification of that information and of the efforts made to comply with the notification.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: The condominium next door is notified through its association
If the adjoining property is a condominium under the horizontal property regime, the postal address of the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association is provided. There is no need to gather every apartment’s address: the section channels notification through the association.
Step 2: When what adjoins is a street or a creek
Here is the rule most people overlook. Where the adjoining side is an access road or a body of water, the properties on the other side of that road or body of water must be included. That is, the neighbour across the street counts. There is one exception: where the body of water has a distance greater than five hundred metres, such notification is not necessary. A note on the source: the section does not say whether those five hundred metres are the body of water’s width or the distance to the properties across; we publish the wording as printed and measure nothing for it.
Step 3: Adjoining owner with access control
Where the adjoining owner or owners have access control, besides them the address of the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association must be included. That is two notifications, not one: the adjoining owner and the association of the gated development or community.
Step 4: Public work inside an easement
In those cases where a public infrastructure work will be carried out on an easement strip inside a holding, the owner to be notified is the owner of the easement’s servient lot. Notification follows the owner of the land that bears the easement, not whoever benefits from it.
Step 5: Certified mail to the CRIM address
Adequate notification is that sent by the applicant to the adjoining owners’ addresses on record at the CRIM, in which case evidence of mailing by certified mail must be attached in the digital file. That is the standard route, and the evidence goes in the file: sending is not enough, it must be shown.
Step 6: Personal delivery as a substitute
The certified-mail delivery requirement may be substituted by delivering the notification personally where the property’s occupants are those recorded at the CRIM or the titleholder. In that case a receipt is taken, recording the name, the physical address and the signature of the person notified certifying they are the property’s titleholder.
Step 7: When the neighbour is not in the CRIM
In those cases where an immediate adjoining owner’s postal address is not accessible at the CRIM, and the property is lived in or inhabited by the titleholder, lessee or possessor, or is used, the notification may be delivered personally to the occupant. A certification must be attached recording the missing CRIM information and the delivery to the occupant, stating the name, the delivery date and the place’s physical address. And if it is unoccupied or the occupant cannot be located, a certification of that information and of the efforts made to comply with the notification is filed.
Step 8: Supraregional projects: newspaper notice
For supraregional public infrastructure projects, notification by public notice in a newspaper of general and regional circulation is permitted. It is the section’s only route replacing individual notification with a publication, and it is reserved to that category of project.
Where to do it
The list of adjoining owners, with names, postal addresses and emails per the information on record at the CRIM, is uploaded with the application in the SUI for discretionary, adjudicative and quasi-legislative matters. The evidence of certified mailing, the personal-delivery receipt and the substitute certifications are attached in the same digital file.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
It pays to build the list of adjoining owners from the map, not from memory. The three most-forgotten cases are the property across when what adjoins is a street or a creek — those count — the condominium next door, notified through its Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association address, and the adjoining owner with access control, where both the neighbour and the association must be notified. The section’s only dispensation is where the body of water has a distance greater than five hundred metres. On the how, the safe route is certified mail to the address on record at the CRIM, with the mailing evidence attached to the digital file; without that evidence the notification cannot be shown. If the neighbour lives on the property, it may be handed over in person with a receipt recording name, physical address and signature. And if the immediate adjoining owner’s postal address is simply not at the CRIM, the section does not leave the applicant without an exit: delivery is made to the occupant and the missing information is certified, and if nobody is there, that fact and the efforts made are certified. Documenting the efforts is what holds the file up when the neighbour cannot be found.
Common mistakes
- Leaving out the properties across when the adjoining side is an access road or a body of water.
- Notifying an adjoining condominium apartment by apartment instead of providing the Residents’ or Condominium Owners’ Association address.
- Notifying only the neighbour where the adjoining owner has access control, without including the association’s address.
- Applying the five-hundred-metre exception to an access road, when the section limits it to the body of water.
- Sending the notification without attaching evidence of certified mailing in the digital file.
- Handing it over in person without taking a receipt with the notified person’s name, physical address and signature.
- Giving the notification up for impossible when the adjoining owner’s address is not at the CRIM, without delivering to the occupant or certifying the missing information.
- Not certifying the efforts made where the property is unoccupied or the occupant cannot be located.
- Notifying the wrong owner where the public work runs on an easement strip: the one notified is the servient lot’s owner.
- Using newspaper notice on a project that is not a supraregional public infrastructure one.
Frequently asked questions
If a street lies between my lot and the neighbour, must I notify them?
Yes. Where the adjoining side is an access road or a body of water, the properties on the other side of that road or body of water must be included.
And if the body of water is very wide?
Where the body of water has a distance greater than five hundred (500) metres, such notification is not necessary. The section does not clarify whether that distance is the body of water’s width or the separation to the properties across.
How do I notify an adjoining owner who is not in the CRIM?
If the property is inhabited or used by the titleholder, lessee or possessor, it may be delivered personally to the occupant, attaching a certification recording the missing CRIM information and the delivery, with the name, the delivery date and the place’s physical address. If it is unoccupied or the occupant cannot be located, a certification of that information and of the efforts made is filed.
Must the notification be sent by certified mail?
It is the route the section calls adequate notification: that sent to the adjoining owners’ addresses on record at the CRIM, with evidence of certified mailing attached to the digital file. It may be substituted by personal delivery where the occupants are those recorded at the CRIM or the titleholder, taking a receipt with name, physical address and signature.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)
OGPe
docs.pr.gov
- OGPe Single Business Portal
ogpe
www.permisos.pr.gov
- Planning Board
jp
jp.pr.gov
Last verified
September 6, 2026
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