Services contract: what the client owes and what the provider owes

They are Articles 1384 to 1386 of the Civil Code of 2020: how the price of services is determined, the principal’s two duties and the provider’s four.

Principals and service providers under a contract governed by the Puerto Rico Civil Code.

• A price: agreed by the parties or, failing that, determinable by law or usage.Verified against the official source
• From the principal: pay the price and provide the collaboration necessary for the services to be provided.Verified against the official source
• From the provider: provide the services as agreed and according to the knowledge the corresponding art, science or technique requires.Verified against the official source
• From the provider: supply the materials ordinarily used and provide the services within the agreed time or the time that reasonably corresponds.Verified against the official source

• The contract with the service and the price, if agreed: it is Article 1384’s first criterion.
• The essential information on the execution the provider must supply, under Article 1386(b).

1. 1

   Step 1: Where the price comes from

   Article 1384: the price of the services is determined by the parties’ agreement or, failing that, by law or usage. That is the order.

2. 2

   Step 2: If none of that exists, the court

   The same article closes: where no price has been agreed and there is no applicable law or usage, the court determines it. It does not say on what criterion, and this guide does not supply one.

3. 3

   Step 3: What the client owes: paying

   Article 1385(a): pay the price of the services. It is the first of only two obligations the chapter places on them.

4. 4

   Step 4: And collaborating

   Subsection (b): provide the collaboration necessary for the services to be provided. If the provider cannot work because access, information or conditions are withheld, that duty is written into the statute.

5. 5

   Step 5: What the provider owes: skill and what was agreed

   Article 1386(a): provide the services as agreed and according to the knowledge required by the art, science or technique corresponding to the activity that constitutes the services. The yardstick is double: what was agreed and the knowledge proper to that activity.

6. 6

   Step 6: Informing about the execution

   Subsection (b): provide the principal with essential information on the execution. The article does not say how often or in what form, and this guide does not fix it.

7. 7

   Step 7: The provider supplies the ordinary materials

   Subsection (c): supply the materials ordinarily used in providing the agreed services. Note one detail: the works chapter says the same but adds "except where otherwise agreed"; here the subsection is written without that proviso. We report both texts as they stand.

8. 8

   Step 8: The time, even where none was agreed

   Subsection (d): provide the services 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.

9. 9

   Step 9: What this chapter does not require of the provider

   There is no ten-year warranty here, no duty to warn about materials the principal supplies, no duty to communicate variations with their estimated cost, and no right for the principal to verify progress. All of that lives in the works chapter, and this guide does not carry it across.

The obligations are performed between the parties; the Code names no agency. If the service is a consumer one, the Department of Consumer Affairs has its own rules on estimates, warranties and complaints, with separate guides on this site, which we did not read here. Contract disputes are decided by the Court of First Instance.

• Contracting without discussing the price and assuming nothing is owed: Article 1384 determines it anyway.
• Assuming that absent agreement the provider sets the price: law or usage governs first, and failing those the court determines it.
• As the principal, withholding the access, information or conditions needed and then complaining of delay.
• As the provider, not giving the essential information on the execution.
• As the provider, not supplying the materials ordinarily used in that service.
• Believing there is no period without an agreed date: there is the one that reasonably corresponds.
• Demanding the works chapter’s ten-year warranty from the provider: this chapter does not carry it.
• Demanding that they communicate variations with their estimated cost: that duty belongs to the works contractor.
• Ignoring that, for consumer services, DACO’s rules run on their own terms.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov