How long your permit lasts and how many extensions you may seek

These are Rules 2.2.5 and 2.2.6 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, on the validity terms of final determinations and the extension of a construction permit’s validity, plus Sections 2.2.3.16 and 2.2.3.17 of the same chapter, dealing with the extension and reopening of approved consultas. All answer the same question: how long you have before what was approved stops being valid, and what you can do if that time runs out. The regulation itself warns that the validity terms are considered definitive to all legal effects, and only then opens the door to extensions. The same chapter’s ministerial and discretionary framework has its own guide on this site.

The terms apply to final determinations on consultas or recommendations relating to a construction project, to those authorising any use, to those authorising a temporary use, and to the construction permit itself. An extension of a construction permit’s validity may be sought by the interested party where the extension is not considered contrary to the public interest, provided the petition is filed ahead of the issued permit’s expiry date, stating the grounds and accompanied by a certification from the designer and specialists, if any, that the construction project still conforms to applicable laws and regulations. An extension of a consulta’s validity is granted by OGPe’s Junta Adjudicativa or the hierarchy I-III autonomous municipality, with one express exception: it is not granted to consultas relating to a shopping centre of one hundred thousand or more square feet of net sales and warehouse area. And the reopening of an approved consulta is authorised only once, and must be sought within one year of the date the consulta lost its validity.

• So that a final determination on a construction project does not lapse: obtaining the corresponding construction permit within two years of the determination being notified.Verified against the official source
• After obtaining the construction permit: starting the authorised works within two years of the date of its notification.Verified against the official source
• So that a final determination authorising any use does not lapse: obtaining the corresponding single permit within two years of its notification.Verified against the official source
• In phased projects: once a phase is completed, starting the next as the consulta establishes, but within five years of the previous one being completed.Verified against the official source
• To extend a construction permit: filing the petition ahead of the issued permit’s expiry date, stating the grounds, and accompanying it with a certification from the designer and specialists, if any, that the construction project still conforms to applicable laws and regulations.Verified against the official source
• To extend an approved consulta: filing the petition before the consulta’s expiry date, stating the grounds it rests on and evidencing the progress made in preparing the documents and plans the case requires.Verified against the official source
• To reopen an approved consulta that lost its validity: filing the request within one year of that date, explaining the grounds justifying the reopening and notifying the request to all parties recognised in the originally approved consulta’s proceeding.Verified against the official source

• For the construction permit’s extension: the certification from the designer and the specialists, if any, that the construction project still conforms to applicable laws and regulations.
• For a consulta’s extension: evidence of the progress made in preparing the documents and plans the case requires, together with the grounds the petition rests on.
• For a consulta’s reopening: the explanation of the grounds justifying it and the notice of the request to all parties recognised in the originally approved consulta’s proceeding.

1. 1

   Step 1: The two two-year clocks

   Every final determination on any consulta or recommendation relating to a construction project lapses in two cases. First, if within two years, counted from its notification, the corresponding construction permit is not obtained. Second, if after obtaining the corresponding construction permit, the works authorised in it are not started within two years of the date of its notification. They are two consecutive periods, not one: two years to get the permit, and two more to start. Missing either leaves what was approved without effect.

2. 2

   Step 2: The use permit has a clock too

   Every final determination authorising any use lapses if within two years of its notification the corresponding single permit has not been obtained. And there is a case with a much shorter clock: every final determination authorising a temporary use has a maximum validity of six months, and extension of this type of permit for consecutive terms exceeding six months is not permitted. That is, a temporary use cannot be rolled over indefinitely six months at a time.

3. 3

   Step 3: How long the construction permit itself lasts

   The issuance of a construction permit carries a two-year term to start the works, and it remains in force for the time needed to conclude them. The regulation clarifies that this includes the construction huts or sales offices for a project. In other words: the clock runs for starting, not for finishing. Once you started within the two years, the permit stays with you until the work concludes. And a rule that goes with it: all recommendations and authorisations of incidental works issued as part of a permit application before OGPe have the same validity as the permit they were issued for.

4. 4

   Step 4: Phased projects: five years between phases

   For projects carried out in construction phases, the rule is different. Once a phase is completed, the next must start as the consulta establishes, but within five years of the previous phase being completed. And if it does not start within that term, not everything is lost: a reopening of the consulta may be filed and the applicable recommendations updated.

5. 5

   Step 5: Challenging does not stop the clock, but halting does

   Unless a court with jurisdiction determines otherwise, filing a review or challenge to a final determination does not paralyse that determination’s effects. But the regulation recognises the other side: in the case of a paralysation ordered by the court, or where the action’s proponent decides to halt the works until there is a final or firm determination, that determination’s validity term is considered interrupted from the court-ordered paralysation or from the filing of the judicial review. That is, the time the work spends halted by court order — or by the proponent’s own decision while it is resolved — does not eat into your validity.

6. 6

   Step 6: Amending does not extend, except in consultas

   It is a short line with big consequences: any amendment to a final determination, except in the case of consultas, does not have the effect of extending the validity terms. If you were counting on filing an amendment to buy time, it does not work that way outside consultas. And in consultas, evaluating the amendment is what decides: the amendment’s magnitude is assessed to determine whether the proposed amendment needs an extension of the consulta’s validity, or whether it is a minor matter not meriting a new validity.

7. 7

   Step 7: Two one-year extensions for the construction permit

   The regulation starts by closing the door and then leaves it ajar. The validity terms stated are considered definitive to all legal effects. They may nonetheless be extended at the interested party’s request where the extension is not considered contrary to the public interest, provided the extension petition is filed ahead of the issued construction permit’s expiry date. The grounds the petition rests on must be stated, and it must be accompanied by a certification from the designer and specialists, if any, that the construction project still conforms to applicable laws and regulations. And the cap is clear: only a maximum of two one-year extensions will be granted.

8. 8

   Step 8: Three extensions for a consulta, except large shopping centres

   Here the number changes, and confusing it is costly. OGPe’s Junta Adjudicativa or the hierarchy I-III autonomous municipality may grant an extension to a consulta’s validity, except those relating to a shopping centre of one hundred thousand or more square feet of net sales and warehouse area, provided the extension petition is filed before the consulta’s expiry date, states the grounds it rests on and evidences the progress made in preparing the documents and plans the case requires. And only up to three one-year extensions are granted, where justified. That is: two for the construction permit, three for the consulta, and none for the consulta of a shopping centre of one hundred thousand square feet or more.

9. 9

   Step 9: If it already expired: one reopening and one year to seek it

   OGPe’s Junta Adjudicativa or the hierarchy I-III municipality may authorise only one reopening of a consulta where the following is met: the request must be filed within one year of the date the consulta lost its validity, and once that term passes a new consulta must be filed; the grounds justifying the reopening must be explained; and the request must be notified to all parties recognised in the originally approved consulta’s proceeding. There is also an advantage worth knowing: authorising a reopening does not entail a new review process.

10. 10

    Step 10: The querella exception

    There is one case where the two-year term to obtain the construction permit does not apply. The regulation describes it thus: it does not apply where a querella exists and, as a result of its investigation — under Rules 11.2.3 and 11.2.4 of Volume XI, carried out by the Permit Auditor or their delegate — it is concluded the querella’s allegations are true; so that filing the applicable permit application runs from sixty days after the notice of approval for obtaining the Construction Permit. We did not read those two rules of Volume XI; we name them because the chapter sends readers to them.

An extension of a construction permit’s validity is sought at the interested party’s request, ahead of the issued permit’s expiry date. An extension of a consulta’s validity is granted by OGPe’s Junta Adjudicativa or the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, and the petition is filed before the consulta’s expiry date. The reopening of a consulta is likewise authorised by OGPe’s Junta Adjudicativa or the municipality, within one year of the consulta losing its validity, and must be notified to all parties recognised in the original proceeding.

• Counting a single two-year period: there are two, one to obtain the permit and one to start the works.
• Seeking the extension after the expiry date, when it must be filed ahead of it.
• Confusing the construction permit’s two extensions with an approved consulta’s three.
• Counting on an extension for the consulta of a shopping centre of one hundred thousand or more square feet of net sales and warehouse area.
• Rolling over a temporary use six months at a time: it is not permitted for consecutive terms exceeding six months.
• Filing an amendment believing it extends validity, when it only does so for consultas.
• Letting more than a year pass from the consulta losing its validity before seeking the reopening.
• Seeking the construction permit’s extension without the designer’s certification that the project still conforms.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov