Parcel or lot under Title V of the Land Act: who qualifies and how the draw works

It is Regulation No. 7534 of the Department of Housing, of 30 June 2008, the "Regulation for the Distribution and Administration of Parcels or Lots for Housing under Title V of the Puerto Rico Land Act (Amended)". It is adopted under Ley 97 of 10 June 1972, the Housing Department’s Organic Act, and issued by virtue of Ley 26 of 12 April 1941, as amended. Its purpose is to establish rules for the application, verification, selection, award and administration of parcels or lots for housing under Title V.

Applicants must be "agregados"; have resided in Puerto Rico for at least six months before applying; not have or possess sufficient capital or income to acquire real property for housing; meet the qualifying income the regulation computes; and be residents of the municipality where the project being drawn is located — a requirement that does not apply to the priorities in Article 4, item 1, letters A and C, nor to that of Article 5, item 2. The Department may extend the benefits to those who, meeting the other requirements, live in an urban zone but earn their wage in agricultural work; live in a rural zone without earning an agricultural wage; have moved from rural to urban and wish to return; or live in an urban zone and wish to move to a rural one. Not eligible are those who previously held usufruct of Title V parcels and disposed of them, those who benefited from other title-granting acts through the Department, and those who at the time of applying are beneficiaries of other Department programmes in which they hold title to a home.

• Being an "agregado": a head of family or qualifying single person living in a rural zone, whose home is on someone else’s house and land or is their own house built on someone else’s land, whose only livelihood is work or wages earned in agricultural labour, and who owns no land.Verified against the official source
• Having resided in Puerto Rico for at least six (6) months before the date of application.Verified against the official source
• Not having or possessing sufficient capital or income to acquire real property for housing use.Verified against the official source
• Qualifying by income: $1,048.00 per marriage, adults living together or heads of family; $86.00 additional credit for each of the first two children; $29.00 per child up to a maximum of seven; and $86.00 for each additional adult living with them who is incapacitated or aged 60 or over.Verified against the official source
• Being a resident of the municipality where the project being drawn is located, except for the priorities in Article 4, item 1, letters A and C, and that of Article 5, item 2.Verified against the official source

• Any evidence granting a special priority among those established in the regulation.
• If employed: employment certification and evidence of the income tax return of the applicant and their spouse, where applicable.
• If unemployed: certification from the Employment Security Bureau of the Department of Labour.
• Certification showing they are a beneficiary of a Department of the Family programme, Social Security, the State Insurance Fund, Retirement Systems, Veterans’ and other pensions or government aid.
• Relevant documentation of any other income.
• CRIM certification confirming the applicant holds no properties in their name.
• Photograph of the applicant.
• Sworn statement confirming they hold no real property such as a house, apartment or land.
• Birth certificate, marriage certificate if applicable, a copy of the Social Security card and a photo-and-signature identification issued by a state or federal government agency.
• Study certification for children over 18.
• Any other documentation the Department considers necessary. All documents must be presented in original, except the copy of the Social Security card, the identification card and the birth and marriage certificates.

1. 1

   Step 1: What an "agregado" is, and what is distributed

   The regulation defines an "agregado" as any head of family and those qualifying single persons living in a rural zone, whose home is on someone else’s house and land or is their own house built on someone else’s land, whose only livelihood is work or wages earned in agricultural labour, and who owns no land. Two different things are distributed: a "parcela" is a plot of land no smaller than one "cuadro" and no larger than three "cuerdas"; a "solar" is a plot whose area, depending on topography, may range from three hundred and fifty square metres to one thousand square metres.

2. 2

   Step 2: The qualifying income

   The regulation computes income as follows: $1,048.00 per marriage, adults living together, or heads of family, adding that this amount is subject to the federal minimum wage, so that as the federal minimum wage rises the qualifying income rises accordingly. Credits are added: $86.00 additional credit for each of the first two children; $29.00 additional credit per child up to a maximum of seven children, awarded for minor children with no income at all or who are incapacitated without income; and $86.00 for each additional adult living with them who is incapacitated or aged 60 or over. The regulation itself warns that this income information may be modified when necessary to adjust it to changes affecting the country’s economy, such as changes in the federal minimum wage, which will not require amending the regulation. That is: the figures you see are those of the 2008 text, and the regulation reserves the right to adjust them without amendment.

3. 3

   Step 3: What does not count as income

   The definition of income is broad — the sum of gross money received by the head of family, their spouse or the person they live with as such, plus money received by anyone else under the same roof — but the regulation expressly excludes: study grants, aid from the Nutrition Assistance Programme, economic assistance from the Department of the Family, ASUME support payments, Social Security income, the Veterans’ pension, State Insurance Fund compensation, and retirement systems and other pensions received by any incapacitated or pensioned family member.

4. 4

   Step 4: The priorities

   Priority in the selection and award of lots is given, in this order: first, to people living inside the farm subject to expropriation or acquisition; second, to those whose homes — living in the urban or rural zone of any municipality — were acquired by the Government or its public instrumentalities by purchase or expropriation to carry out a project of public interest, utility or purpose; third, to those affected by natural disasters or fires whose homes stood on someone else’s land. In addition, priority may be given to people whom the Secretary of the Family determines, after the corresponding investigation, live in conditions of overcrowding, poverty or any other grave social problem, and which in the Secretary of Housing’s judgement warrant it. Anyone using these priorities must still meet the other requirements of the Act and the regulation.

5. 5

   Step 5: The press notice and the deadline

   The Department’s regional administrations receive applications for the project in question until the deadline stated in the press notice, provided they are new-development farms and communal pasture areas later to be subdivided into lots. The Department publishes in a general daily newspaper a notice giving the municipality, the project’s name and the place where it is proposed, and the application deadline, which must be no less than fifteen days from the notice’s publication. And at least five days before the draw it publishes a second notice giving the date, time and place; if the draw cannot be held on the announced date for a justified reason, a new notice is published.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you qualify and if you do not

   Applicants who have qualified are notified in writing that they have been selected to take part in the draw for lots, at least ten days in advance, stating date, time and place. The cards of qualified applicants are filed alphabetically and used in that order for the draw list. If you are found not to qualify, you are notified in writing at the address given in the application at least thirty days before the candidate-selection draw, and that communication tells you that, if you disagree, you have thirty days from receipt to appeal to the Secretary and request an administrative hearing. The Secretary or a designated examiner holds the hearing at the Regional Administration, notified at least thirty days in advance, and the Secretary notifies the decision within fifteen days of the hearing. Apart from those periods, hearing or complaint requests are heard under the Department’s formal adjudication regulation issued by virtue of Ley 170 of 12 August 1988, the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act.

7. 7

   Step 7: The tómbola

   Lots are awarded by draw, in the municipality where they lie, run by Department representatives. A tómbola is set up with balls numbered according to the numbering given to the parcels. Priority in the distribution of balls goes to people qualifying under priorities 1, 2 and 3, in that order. Once the priority candidates’ draw is complete, the tómbola is filled with blank balls to match the number of remaining qualified applicants, who are called in the alphabetical order of the list; each receives a ball, and if it bears a number, that is the lot awarded to them. There is an important exception: "agregados" living on the farm being divided receive, without a draw, the lot where their house stands, or the nearest one if the house’s location prevents subdivision. If a qualified applicant cannot attend on the day of the draw, that does not disqualify them and they take part as if present, provided they send an authorised representative; otherwise the lot is treated as not awarded. And the Department calls one of the participants to watch over the purity of the procedure alongside the officials.

8. 8

   Step 8: The usufruct contract

   People awarded a lot are granted a usufruct contract containing, among other things: the usufructuary’s name and personal circumstances — and where they are spouses or live together as such, both are considered usufructuaries; the parcel or lot number and the community’s name; the usufructuary’s duties; the award date; and the signature of the usufructuary, the spouse and the Regional Director or authorised representative. It is worth being clear about what is received: the regulation defines usufruct as the right conferred by law to use and enjoy someone else’s property free of charge, for life, and calls a usufructuary the person awarded a parcel by virtue of Article 76 of Ley 26 of 12 April 1941.

9. 9

   Step 9: The duties, and what voids the right

   The duties of those awarded are concrete: to live in and occupy the parcel or lot within 120 days of the delivery date, and to request an extension from Department officials if they cannot occupy it in that period; to preserve the boundaries and points established; to devote the parcel exclusively to housing and not subdivide it; not to establish businesses on it; to establish a single dwelling unit; and — on pain of absolute nullity — not to sell, transfer, exchange, rent, cede, assign, lease or encumber the usufruct right. Any breach is governed by the regulation in force on the repossession of parcels ceded in usufruct under Title V. In addition, usufructuaries must allow Department employees free access to the parcels to inspect them and determine whether the Act and the regulations are being complied with.

10. 10

    Step 10: If you live in public housing or hold a Section 8 voucher

    The regulation opens the door to them expressly. Families living in public housing or participating in the Section 8 Rental Subsidy Programme who meet the eligibility requirements have the opportunity to take part in the selection and draws for parcels. If awarded one, they have one hundred and twenty days to build their home. Title is awarded when the beneficiary occupies the parcel or lot and leaves available to the Department of Housing the home they occupy in public housing or hold under Section 8. If they cannot meet that term, they may request an extension for just cause; otherwise it is sufficient ground to repossess the parcel through the procedures established in Ley 105 of 24 June 1977.

11. 11

    Step 11: Distribution details worth knowing

    Where there is a family unit, the application must be completed and signed by the person with primary responsibility for its care, and only one application per family unit may be considered. Where there is a marriage or two people living together as such, the Department accepts only an application in both names. Buildings to be constructed on the lots must comply with the provisions set by the Planning Board and — as the 2008 text names it — the Regulations and Permits Administration (ARPe). Where by reason of topography, high land cost or location relative to towns with urban characteristics it becomes necessary to distribute parcels smaller than 25 "cuerdas", this may be done with the Planning Board’s prior approval. And the Department may exclude from distribution parcels whose irregular topography requires improvements it judges too onerous for the draw’s participants; those are distributed to people who qualify and undertake to improve them so that they are habitable.

At the Regional Administrations of the Department of Housing, which receive the applications for each project until the deadline in the press notice. The administrative hearing on a finding of non-eligibility is also held at the Regional Administration, before the Secretary or an examiner they designate. The draw is held in the municipality where the lots lie.

• Believing you receive the property: what is awarded is a lifetime usufruct.
• Selling, renting or encumbering the usufruct, which the regulation punishes with absolute nullity.
• Setting up a business on the parcel, which the regulation expressly forbids.
• Building more than one dwelling unit or subdividing the parcel.
• Letting the 120 days to occupy pass without requesting an extension from Department officials.
• Filing more than one application per family unit.
• Filing in one name only where there is a marriage or a couple living together.
• Missing the thirty days to appeal to the Secretary after a finding of non-eligibility.
• Not sending an authorised representative to the draw when you cannot attend.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de la Vivienda

  Vivienda

  docs.pr.gov

• Department of Housing

  vivienda

  www.vivienda.pr.gov