Contracted works: ten years of warranty against ruin, and nine more duties

They are Articles 1374 and 1375 of the Civil Code of 2020: the principal’s three duties, the direct action of those who put in labour and materials, and the contractor’s ten duties, including the ten-year warranty against ruin.

Principals and contractors of a work under the Puerto Rico Civil Code, and those who put their labour and materials into a work contracted at a lump-sum price.

• From the principal: pay the price, collaborate as necessary for the work to be carried out, and receive it where executed as agreed.Verified against the official source
• From the contractor: execute as agreed and according to the knowledge the relevant art, science or technique requires.Verified against the official source
• From the contractor: communicate any necessary variation and its estimated cost.Verified against the official source
• For the action in the last paragraph of Article 1374: to have put labour and materials into a work at a lump-sum price, and that the principal owe the contractor something when the claim is made.Verified against the official source

• The record of delivery of the work: the ten years of the warranty against ruin run from it.
• The communication of any necessary variation with its estimated cost, which Article 1375(d) places on the contractor.
• If the principal supplied materials, the contractor’s warning about their bad quality or unsuitability, if given.

1. 1

   Step 1: What the principal owes

   Article 1374: pay the price of the work; provide the collaboration necessary for the work to be carried out; and receive the work where it has been executed as agreed. Note the condition on the third: receive it where it was executed as agreed.

2. 2

   Step 2: Those who put in labour and materials may claim from the owner

   The last paragraph of Article 1374: those who put their labour and materials into a work at a lump-sum price have an action against the principal up to the amount the principal owes the contractor when the claim is made. Three conditions in one line: labour and materials, lump-sum price, and the cap of what is owed at the moment of the claim.

3. 3

   Step 3: Executing with skill and not changing the work

   Article 1375(a) and (b): execute as agreed and according to the knowledge the relevant art, science or technique requires; and not vary the agreed work, except where the modifications are necessary to execute it according to the rules of the art and provided they were unforeseeable at the time of contracting.

4. 4

   Step 4: Informing, and warning before changing

   Subsections (c) and (d): provide the principal with essential information on the execution, and communicate any necessary variation and its estimated cost. The estimated cost is not optional: it is in the text.

5. 5

   Step 5: If the owner supplied bad materials, they must be told

   Subsection (e): warn the principal about the bad quality or unsuitability of the materials they supplied. That warning reappears later in the chapter: if the work is destroyed because of those materials and the contractor warned in time, the principal must pay the full agreed price.

6. 6

   Step 6: Ordinary materials are supplied by the contractor

   Subsection (f): supply, except where otherwise agreed, the materials ordinarily used in the execution. It runs in the same direction as the presumption in the price article.

7. 7

   Step 7: The time, even where none was agreed

   Subsection (g): execute the work within the agreed time or within the time that reasonably corresponds. With no date in the contract there is still a period: the reasonable one.

8. 8

   Step 8: The principal may verify progress

   Subsection (h): allow the principal, provided it does not harm the progress of the works, to verify at its own cost the state of progress and the quality of the materials used and the work done. Two conditions: no harm to the works, and at the principal’s cost.

9. 9

   Step 9: The ten-year warranty against ruin

   Subsection (i), the section’s most important: guarantee the soundness of the work against ruin for a term of ten (10) years from delivery, where it has been built on an immovable and must be of long duration. Both conditions — built on an immovable and of long duration — are in the text, and the Code defines neither, nor the word "ruin".

10. 10

    Step 10: Who else answers for ruin

    The same subsection: the promoter of the work bears the same liability, and the architect answers if the ruin is due to defects of the soil or of the direction. Those are the three figures the article names; this guide adds none other.

11. 11

    Step 11: And that the work serve its purpose

    Subsection (j), short and far-reaching: guarantee that the work serves the intended purpose. Being built is not enough: it must serve what it was intended for.

These obligations are performed between the parties: the Code names no agency. Claims, including the one in the last paragraph of Article 1374 and the ten-year warranty, are litigated in the Court of First Instance. Permits, works certification and contractor registration run through other entities with their own rules and their own guides here.

• As the principal, refusing to receive a work executed as agreed.
• As the principal, withholding the necessary collaboration and then complaining of delay.
• As the contractor, varying the work where the modification is neither necessary under the rules of the art nor unforeseeable at contracting.
• As the contractor, making a necessary variation without first communicating its estimated cost.
• As the contractor, using bad materials supplied by the principal without warning them.
• As the principal, inspecting in a way that harms the progress of the works, or expecting the contractor to bear the cost of verification.
• Counting the ten-year warranty from signing rather than from delivery.
• Extending the ten-year warranty to works not built on an immovable or not meant to be of long duration.
• As a worker or supplier, claiming from the principal more than the principal owes the contractor at the moment of the claim.
• Believing a finished work is enough: it must also serve the intended purpose.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov