What cannot be attached from you: the Civil Code list

It is Chapter I of Title III of Book Four of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 1156 and 1157. It says what a debtor answers with and what is out of an attachment’s reach. Article 1157 appears in the consolidated text with the note "[Enmiendas: Ley 150-2024]".

Any debtor whose property may be attached. The list governs except where a law provides otherwise, and the parties may also declare property non-attachable by contract.

• For household furnishings and appliances, that their combined value not exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).Verified against the official source
• For tools, instruments, animals, furniture, libraries, weapons, uniforms required by law and trade equipment, that their value not exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).Verified against the official source
• For a farmer’s cultivation utensils or farming implements, and separately for seeds, grains or vegetables reserved for sowing within the following six months, that their value not exceed four thousand dollars ($4,000) in each case.Verified against the official source
• For the three quarters of wages, that they be salaries or fees received within the thirty (30) days prior to execution of the attachment order and that it appear — from the debtor’s written and sworn statement or otherwise — that they are necessary for the support of the debtor or their family.Verified against the official source
• For the money and benefits of the life insurance, that the beneficiary be a forced heir of the debtor.Verified against the official source

• The debtor’s written and sworn statement that the salaries or fees received in the last thirty days are necessary for their support or their family’s. The article admits it and also admits proof "otherwise".
• Evidence of the value of the property claimed as exempt, because subsections (b), (e) and (f) are measured by dollar caps.

1. 1

   Step 1: What a debtor answers with

   Article 1156 says it without softening: the debtor answers for performance of their obligation with their whole present and future patrimony. The only carve-out is property declared non-attachable by law or, contractually, by creditor and debtor. Note the second route: a contract can put property out of an attachment’s reach.

2. 2

   Step 2: The home, the clothes and the month’s food

   The first subsections of Article 1157 protect the basics: the right to homestead; the personal clothing of the debtor and their family; and provisions actually intended for individual or family use, in a quantity sufficient for one month. Homestead is only named here: its content is in its own statute, which we did not read for this guide and which has a separate guide on this site.

3. 3

   Step 3: Ten thousand dollars in household goods

   Subsection (b) protects household furnishings and appliances whose combined value does not exceed ten thousand dollars. And it spells out what counts: the refrigerator, stove, iron and clothes washer expressly designed for home use, radio receivers and television receivers for home use, as well as pictures, paintings, drawings made by a family member and family portraits with their frames. The cap is combined, not per item.

4. 4

   Step 4: The farmer’s share

   Subsection (e) protects three things for the farmer: cultivation utensils or farming implements whose value does not exceed four thousand dollars; a water intake not exceeding the amount needed to irrigate the land under cultivation; and all seeds, grains or vegetables actually intended and reserved for planting or sowing at any time within the following six months, whose value does not exceed four thousand dollars.

5. 5

   Step 5: The tools of your trade

   Subsection (f) is broad: the tools, instruments, domestic and domesticated animals, furniture, libraries, weapons, uniforms required by law and equipment necessary for the debtor’s profession or trade, whose value does not exceed ten thousand dollars. The condition is that they be necessary for the profession or trade, and again the cap is combined.

6. 6

   Step 6: The work vehicle, with a catch

   Subsection (g) protects the motor vehicle considered an instrument of its owner’s work. But it adds an exception that must be read: this exemption does not apply to the collection of debts related to the purchase price, finance lease or acquisition of the vehicle, or arising from its improvement, repairs, fuel, parts or accessories. That is, it does not protect against whoever financed or repaired that same car.

7. 7

   Step 7: Three quarters of wages, and with conditions

   Subsection (h) protects three quarters of the salaries or professional fees received within the thirty days prior to execution of the attachment order, where it appears from the debtor’s written and sworn statement or otherwise that those salaries or fees are necessary for the support of the debtor or their family, maintained in whole or in part by their work. Three conditions at once: the fraction, the thirty-day window and demonstrated necessity.

8. 8

   Step 8: Life insurance and retirement plans

   The last three subsections. (i): all money, benefits, privileges or immunities arising from any life insurance of the debtor, where the beneficiary is a forced heir of the debtor. (j): the balance of funds in individual retirement accounts held in the debtor’s name. And (k): the balance of benefits accrued in the debtor’s name in private retirement benefit plans covered by federal laws. Which plans are covered by federal laws is decided by those laws, which we did not read.

9. 9

   Step 9: The clause that can switch the whole list off

   Article 1157 opens with a condition easy to skip: they are non-attachable, except in the cases where a law provides otherwise. Other statutes can lift these protections for particular collections. This guide does not say which, because we did not read those statutes.

The exemptions are asserted in the attachment proceeding, before the Court of First Instance. How an attachment order is executed is governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure, which we did not read for this guide. The Code names no agency here.

• Believing the list is absolute: the article itself conditions it on no law providing otherwise.
• Counting the ten-thousand-dollar cap per item: for household goods it is the combined value.
• Treating the work vehicle as protected against whoever financed or repaired it: that is the exception in subsection (g).
• Claiming three quarters of wages without showing they are necessary for one’s own or the family’s support.
• Counting salaries received outside the thirty-day window prior to execution of the attachment order.
• Assuming any life-insurance beneficiary triggers subsection (i): it must be a forced heir.
• Mixing the farmer’s two four-thousand-dollar caps: one is for utensils and the other for seeds.
• Forgetting that the parties may declare property non-attachable by contract, under Article 1156.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov