The support obligation: how much, when, how it changes and when it ends

It is Title X of Book Two of the Civil Code of 2020, Chapters III and IV, Articles 665 to 680. It is the operative part: how it is calculated, from when it runs, how it is collected, how it is modified and for what causes it ends. For a minor child’s support, the amount and its periodic review are set by the complementary special legislation, which this Code does not reproduce.

It applies to every support obligation under the Code, and supplementarily to the other cases in which, by the Code, by will or by pact, there is a right to alimentos, unless the contracting parties, the testator or the law provide otherwise.

• That an adult’s amount be proportional to the alimentante’s resources and the alimentista’s needs.Verified against the official source
• Paying in the first ten days of the month the amount corresponds to.Verified against the official source
• Obtaining judicial authorization before reducing the amount: the alimentante may not reduce it on their own.Verified against the official source
• To change the manner of payment — receiving the alimentista at home, granting the usufruct of property, delivering capital or rendering equivalent services — prior judicial authorization.Verified against the official source
• To settle overdue payments where the alimentista is a minor: the court’s authorization.Verified against the official source
• That the modification of a minor’s or an elderly ascendant’s pension respond to substantial changes significantly altering the needs and the resources.Verified against the official source

• Evidence of the accumulated patrimony, income-generating potential, benefits from third parties, non-indispensable expenses and lifestyle of both parties.

1. 1

   Step 1: How an adult’s amount is measured

   Proportional to the alimentante’s resources and the alimentista’s needs. And the Code says explicitly what to look at in estimating both sides’ resources: accumulated patrimony, income-generating potential, direct and indirect benefits received from third parties, the profile of non-indispensable expenses and lifestyle. That "income-generating potential" is why quitting a job does not automatically lower the support.

2. 2

   Step 2: A minor’s amount is not here

   The Code says it in a single line: the adequate amount of alimentos for a minor is fixed following the criteria set in the complementary special law. There is no formula, table or percentage in the Code, and we publish none because this source does not carry one and we did not read that law for this guide.

3. 3

   Step 3: Demandable from when needed, paid from the complaint

   The distinction that decides the most money in practice. The obligation to provide alimentos is demandable from when the alimentista needs them, but they are paid from the date the complaint is filed. That is: the need may be old, but the money clock starts the day it is filed. Filing late costs.

4. 4

   Step 4: The first ten days of the month

   Payment of the amount imposed as alimentos will be made in the first ten days of the month it corresponds to. And if the alimentista dies while the obligation is in force, their heirs are not obliged to return what they received in advance.

5. 5

   Step 5: Other ways to pay, all with the court’s leave

   The alimentante may, at the judge’s discretion and with prior judicial authorization, satisfy the alimentos by paying the pension fixed or by receiving in their own home the person entitled to them, provided it is in the alimentista’s optimal interest; that second option may be refused by the alimentista on legal, moral or social grounds, or any other reasonable cause. They may also, with judicial authorization, grant the usufruct of certain property, deliver capital in property or money, or render equivalent services. If the chosen manner harms the alimentista, the court may determine a more suitable one.

6. 6

   Step 6: Lowering it on your own does not count

   The amount is reduced or increased proportionally as the alimentista’s needs and the obligor’s resources rise or fall. But the alimentante may not reduce the amount without judicial authorization. Once the reduction request is submitted and its grounds proven, the court will issue its resolution, effective from its date. And the reduction does not apply to sums due and unpaid before the request was filed: what was already owed remains owed in full.

7. 7

   Step 7: Interest, prescription and settling arrears

   The alimentos granted bear default interest from when judgment is entered or from the expiry of each of the terms fixed for payment. Payment of accrued and overdue amounts prescribes in five years from the date they should have been paid, and to that period the rules on interruption and suspension of prescription as to minors and incapacitated persons apply. The alimentista may settle overdue and unpaid payments with the alimentante or the successor of the obligation, but if a minor they need the court’s authorization.

8. 8

   Step 8: Sanctions, and when jail proceeds

   On non-compliance the court may impose on the alimentante any suitable sanction compelling them to meet their obligation. Imprisonment proceeds only where there is evident temerity and obstinacy in the face of repeated compliance orders: it is not the first response nor an automatic one. And the alimentante’s insolvency does not exempt them from paying the pension; the court may modify the manner of payment, but not the reasonable amount the alimentista needs for their subsistence and integral development.

9. 9

   Step 9: The five causes for which it ends

   The obligation to give alimentos is extinguished: by the death of the alimentista or of the alimentante; where the alimentante’s patrimony is reduced to the point of not being able to satisfy them without neglecting their own needs and those of their immediate family — except where the alimentista is a minor, which goes by the special legislation; where the alimentista can exercise a trade, profession or industry, or has improved their economic situation; where the alimentista, legitimario or not, commits one of the faults giving rise to disinheritance; or where the alimentista’s need comes from their bad conduct or lack of application to work, while that cause subsists. The list of faults giving rise to disinheritance is elsewhere in the Code and we do not reproduce it here.

Before the Court of First Instance, or in the corresponding administrative proceeding. Every reduction of the amount and every change in the manner of payment need judicial authorization.

• Lowering the support on your own without judicial authorization.
• Believing a granted reduction erases the arrears predating the request.
• Waiting to file: alimentos are paid from the date of the complaint, not from when the need began.
• Paying after the tenth day of the corresponding month.
• Treating arrears as prescribed without counting the interruption and suspension rules for minors and incapacitated persons.
• Changing the manner of payment — taking the alimentista in, giving property — without prior judicial authorization.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov