What the holder of a usufruct may do

It is Section Two of Chapter I of Title VI of Book Three of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 884 to 897. It is the list of what the usufructuary may do with the asset and with their own right, and of how far the owner may go.

It applies to whoever holds a constituted usufruct and to the owner of the asset. The rules govern failing or short of the constituting title, which comes first.

• To make improvements, that they not alter the asset’s form or substance.Verified against the official source
• To collect capital encumbered with a usufruct, the concurrence of the credit holder and of the usufructuary.Verified against the official source
• Investing the collected capital fruitfully: the usufruct transfers to it.Verified against the official source
• For the price reduction of Article 895, that the usufruct be onerous.Verified against the official source

• The constituting title, because these rules govern failing or short of it.
• Evidence of the expenses and work producing the pending fruits, which Article 885 requires to be compensated.

1. 1

   Step 1: All the fruits, of all three classes

   Article 884 says the usufructuary, failing or short of title, is entitled to receive all the natural, industrial and civil fruits of the goods held in usufruct. What does not belong to them is treasure discovered in the asset, except the share that may correspond to them for having found it under the Code’s own rules.

2. 2

   Step 2: The asymmetry of pending fruits

   Article 885 sets it bluntly: natural or industrial fruits pending at the beginning of the usufruct belong to the usufructuary, but not the fruits pending at its extinction. You come in with the standing crop and you leave it behind. What the article does impose is a compensation: the owner or the usufructuary, as the case may be, must compensate the person who did the work or incurred the expenses to produce the fruits.

3. 3

   Step 3: Civil fruits are counted day by day

   Article 886 says civil fruits are acquired day by day and belong to the usufructuary in proportion to the time the usufruct lasts, even if not yet received. Articles 887 and 888 extend the idea: each maturity of a rent, periodic pension or interest counts as a product or fruit of that right, and the yields on a usufruct of money, of investment-fund participations and of other collective investment instruments are also civil fruits.

4. 4

   Step 4: Nobody collects the capital on their own

   Article 889 is a two-key rule: capital encumbered with a usufruct may only be collected with the concurrence of the credit holder and of the usufructuary. The capital collected must be invested fruitfully and the usufruct transfers to it. And failing agreement between owner and usufructuary on the collection or on the form of investment, the court decides.

5. 5

   Step 5: Things that wear out and things that are consumed

   Article 891 covers things that, without being consumed by first use, deteriorate gradually: the usufructuary may use them as destined, and is bound only to return them at the end in the state they are in, indemnifying deterioration coming from their own dolo or culpa. And it adds a presumption in their favour: the degree of deterioration at restitution is presumed to correspond to the natural wear of the time elapsed. Article 892 covers consumables: at the end things of the same quantity and quality must be returned and, if that is not possible, their price at the moment the usufruct is extinguished.

6. 6

   Step 6: Improvements: they may be made, and set off

   Article 893 lets the usufructuary make on the goods the useful or recreational improvements they see fit, provided they do not alter their form or substance, and applies to them the rules established for good-faith possession. Article 894 adds a practical tool: the usufructuary may set off damage to the goods against the improvements they made in them.

7. 7

   Step 7: Lease, transfer, mortgage: yes, but with an expiry date

   Article 896 is the most useful in the section. The usufructuary may, besides using the thing themselves, lease it to another and transfer their right of usufruct for value or gratuitously, but the contracts they make will end when the usufruct ends. Only the lease of rustic land is considered to subsist for the agricultural year. And they may mortgage the usufruct, unless the law provides otherwise. Anyone renting from a usufructuary should know their contract lives as long as the usufruct does.

8. 8

   Step 8: The owner may not interfere, and renouncing does not erase third parties

   Article 895 says the owner keeps the faculty of juridical and material disposition belonging to their right, but must not harm the usufructuary’s use and enjoyment; if they do, the usufructuary may demand the activity cease and, if the usufruct is onerous, may opt for a reduction in price proportional to the seriousness of the harm. And Article 897 protects whoever contracted with the usufructuary: renunciation or transfer of the usufruct does not prejudice third parties, who keep their rights for as long as the usufruct lasts as if the renunciation or transfer had not taken place.

These rights are exercised against the owner and third parties, and asserted before the Court of First Instance. Article 889 expressly gives the court the decision when there is no agreement on the collection or investment of capital.

• Counting on the crop pending at the end: that one is not the usufructuary’s.
• Signing a long lease with a usufructuary without knowing it ends with the usufruct.
• Believing that treasure appearing on the land belongs to the usufructuary.
• Making improvements that alter the asset’s form or substance.
• Collecting the encumbered capital alone: both parties must concur.
• Putting up with the owner interfering with the enjoyment: the activity’s cessation may be demanded.
• Thinking that renouncing the usufruct erases the rights of whoever contracted with you.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov