Who pays what in a usufruct: repairs, taxes and debts

It is Section Three of Chapter I of Title VI of Book Three of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 898 to 909. It is the reverse of the usufructuary’s rights: the list of what they must pay, report and answer for.

It applies to the usufructuary and to the owner of the asset. It also reaches whoever receives a share of the fruits because of a limitation in the usufructuary’s enjoyment: that person must contribute proportionally to the ordinary repairs.

• Caring for the thing held in usufruct as a prudent administrator.Verified against the official source
• Making the ordinary repairs the things held in usufruct require.Verified against the official source
• Warning the owner when the need for extraordinary repairs is urgent.Verified against the official source
• Communicating to the owner without delay any third-party act capable of harming the ownership rights.Verified against the official source
• Paying the charges, taxes and encumbrances on the fruits for the whole time the usufruct lasts.Verified against the official source

• The owner’s demand that the ordinary repairs be made, because on it depends their power to make them at the usufructuary’s cost.
• Evidence of the sum invested in the extraordinary repairs and of the increase in value they produced.

1. 1

   Step 1: The measure of everything: prudent administrator

   Article 898 says it in one line: the usufructuary must care for the thing held in usufruct as a prudent administrator. And Article 899 extends that liability to whoever replaces them: a usufructuary who transfers their right in any form, or leases it without the owner’s consent, is liable for the impairment the thing suffers through that person’s fault or negligence.

2. 2

   Step 2: Ordinary repairs: paid by the usufructuary

   Article 900 defines and assigns them. Ordinary repairs are those required by the deterioration or damage arising from the use the things are usually put to, according to their class and nature, and that are also necessary for their conservation. The usufructuary makes them. If someone is entitled to part of the fruits because of a limitation in the usufructuary’s enjoyment, that person must contribute proportionally. And if the usufructuary does not make them after the owner requires it, the owner may make them at the usufructuary’s cost.

3. 3

   Step 3: Extraordinary repairs: paid by the owner

   Article 901 is short: the owner must pay for the extraordinary repairs, and the usufructuary must warn them when the need to make them is urgent. That warning is not a courtesy, it is an obligation.

4. 4

   Step 4: And whoever makes them gets paid

   Article 902 shares out the consequences in three paragraphs. If the owner makes the extraordinary repairs, they may demand from the usufructuary the legal interest on the sum invested for as long as the usufruct lasts. If the owner does not make them when they are indispensable for the thing’s subsistence, the usufructuary may make them, and may demand from the owner, at the end of the usufruct, the increase in value the works gave the thing or the satisfaction of the expenses. And if the owner refuses to pay, the usufructuary has the right to retain the thing and to apply fruits to satisfying the credit.

5. 5

   Step 5: Taxes: fruits to the usufructuary, capital to the owner

   Article 903 draws the line. Payment of the charges, taxes and encumbrances on the fruits is the usufructuary’s account for the whole time the usufruct lasts. Taxes imposed directly on the capital during the usufruct fall on the owner; if the owner pays them, the usufructuary owes them the corresponding interest on those sums, and if the usufructuary advances them, they must be repaid at the end of the usufruct.

6. 6

   Step 6: The owner’s debts are not yours

   Article 904 says it for a usufruct constituted over the whole of an indebted person’s goods: the usufructuary is not obliged to pay those debts, unless there is agreement to the contrary or the usufruct was constituted in fraud of creditors. The same provision applies where the owner is bound, at the constitution of the usufruct, to pay periodic prestations, even if they have no known capital.

7. 7

   Step 7: If the land was already mortgaged

   Article 906 protects the usufructuary in the most frightening case: the usufructuary of land that was already mortgaged when the usufruct was constituted is not obliged to pay the debts secured by the mortgage. And if the land is sold judicially to pay the debt, the owner answers to the usufructuary for the equivalent of the usufruct’s value for the time it would have lasted.

8. 8

   Step 8: Warning about third parties, and who pays for suits

   Article 908 imposes a duty with a concrete sanction: the usufructuary must communicate to the owner without delay any act of a third party they learn of that is capable of harming the ownership rights; if they do not, they answer for all the damages the owner suffers. And Article 909 shares out litigation costs: expenses, costs and awards in suits over the usufruct between the usufructuary and third parties are the usufructuary’s account, but if the suits concern both ownership and usufruct, they fall on owner and usufructuary in proportion to their respective interests.

These obligations are performed and claimed between the usufructuary and the owner, and asserted before the Court of First Instance. The Civil Code designates no agency to arbitrate them.

• Asking the owner to pay for day-to-day maintenance: that is an ordinary repair and it is the usufructuary’s.
• Making an extraordinary repair without warning that it was urgent.
• Charging the usufructuary the tax imposed directly on the capital.
• Believing the usufructuary inherits the owner’s debts: they do not answer absent agreement or fraud of creditors.
• Thinking the usufructuary must pay a mortgage that already burdened the land.
• Staying silent about a third party’s act: whoever fails to warn answers for all the damages.
• Transferring or leasing the usufruct without consent and assuming liability goes with the substitute.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov