Title to a plot that is encumbered or affected

There are plots that have been occupied for decades and that nobody can title because an old law, a lien or a regulatory restriction has them stuck. This 1999 Act is the tool the State gave itself to unstick them: it lets the Secretary of Housing create special, transitory regulations disposing of those plots in favour of the beneficiaries of its social-interest programmes. It is not a long Act — eight articles — and it carries no form; what it carries are the five criteria that regulation must respect, and two exemptions that make the difference between a possible process and an impossible one: the Planning Board and permit rules do not apply to the lotifications, and the title pays no notarial or registry fees.

The criterion that decides most cases is the first in Article 3, and it carries a date: “Title may only be granted to those persons who at the time this Act was approved are in possession of or occupy the plot over which they seek title and are not trespassers.” The Act was approved on 21 August 1999, so that is the moment eligibility is anchored to, and the text offers no later date. The final two words matter as much: “are not trespassers.” Beyond that criterion, Article 2 refers everything else to the regulation: “Beneficiaries or applicants wishing to obtain title under this Act’s provisions must meet the requirements the Secretary of the Housing Department establishes by regulation.”

• Be in possession of or occupy the plot for which title is sought at the time this Act was approved, and not be a trespasser.Verified against the official source
• Meet the requirements the Secretary of the Housing Department establishes by regulation.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: What problem this Act solves

   Worth understanding to know whether your case fits. Article 1 authorises the Secretary to establish procedures “to dispose of those plots that by reason of some law or regulation are encumbered, or affected in such a way as to impede, restrict or prevent their proper disposal or use in favour of the beneficiaries of the social-interest programmes it administers.” That is, the situation is not just any plot: it is one whose transfer is stuck because of a lien or a rule, and which the Department administers within a social-interest programme. The regulations the Act authorises are “special and transitory,” not permanent.

2. 2

   Step 2: The date that decides who is in

   It is the point where most people fall outside and it is worth looking at first. Article 3(i): “Title may only be granted to those persons who at the time this Act was approved are in possession of or occupy the plot over which they seek title and are not trespassers.” The Act was approved on 21 August 1999. There is nothing in the text moving that date or covering whoever entered later, and we do not supply it. If your possession began later, this is not your route even if everything else fits.

3. 3

   Step 3: The guiding criterion, in the Act’s own words

   Worth quoting because it is what an applicant can invoke when the process stalls. Article 3(v): “The title problem shall be sought to be resolved in favour of the possessor or occupant of the plot. The guiding criterion shall be to do justice to the family and grant title to families who wish to obtain it legally.” It is not empty wording: it is the criterion the Act orders the regulation to incorporate, and it is written in favour of whoever lives on the plot.

4. 4

   Step 4: The useless plot next to your house

   This situation is commoner than it looks and the Act gives it a clear order. Article 3(ii): “In the case of useless adjoining or remnant plots, priority shall be given to the immediate neighbour. Where there is more than one neighbour, sale to the highest bidder shall be used.” And for those adjoining nobody or that nobody wants: “In the case of useless plots not adjoining other plots, or in which no neighbour is interested, these shall be sold for agricultural or ornamental use.” Note the two conditions the Act orders written in: “In every public deed or title certification issued over useless plots it shall be stated that no structures for housing or commerce may be built on them, and that all costs necessary to process the sale of these useless plots shall be the buyer’s responsibility.”

5. 5

   Step 5: If you were granted a title before

   The Act contemplates the case of someone who held title and, through a change in life, needs another. Article 3(iii): “In the case of a person who previously received title and by reason of a divorce, death, separation, emigration or any similar situation, another title may be granted if their new family nucleus meets the requirements established in the plot-adjudication regulation; otherwise they shall pay fair market value for the plot.” And Article 3(iv) covers someone with another property: “In the case of persons owning a property additional to the plot, it may be sold to them at fair market value.” In both situations there is a way through, but the price stops being the social-programme one.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you cannot or do not want to buy

   Article 4 opens the alternative: “The Housing Department is authorised to lease plots to occupants who cannot, or do not wish to, buy them, using for that the procedure provided in Act No. 26 of 12 April 1941, as amended.” The same body of rules governs the other side: Article 5 provides the Department will use that same procedure “for repossessions of abandoned plots.” We did not read Act 26 of 1941, so we describe neither the canon nor the lease process here.

7. 7

   Step 7: The two exemptions that make the process viable

   They are short and they are worth money and time. The first, Article 6: “The lotifications or segregations necessary to implement this Act or the related regulations shall be exempt from the provisions of the organic acts and regulations of the Planning Board and the Regulations and Permits Administration.” The second, Article 7: “The granting of titles under this Act may be effected by public deed or certification, both documents being exempt from payment of notarial and registry fees.” That is: title can be documented by certification, and neither the deed nor the certification pays notarial or Registry fees.

At the Housing Department, which administers the social-interest programmes the Act refers to and whose Secretary adopts the special, transitory regulations and grants the titles. The Act publishes no form, office, address or telephone, and we do not invent them.

• Assuming it covers any possession: Article 3(i) anchors it to the moment the Act was approved, 21 August 1999.
• Forgetting the not-a-trespasser condition, which sits in the same sentence as the date.
• Believing the useless plot next door is sold first come first served: the immediate neighbour has priority and, where there are several, it goes to the highest bidder.
• Thinking you can build on a useless plot: the Act requires stating that no housing or commercial structures may be raised.
• Not budgeting the costs: on useless plots, the Act puts them all on the buyer.
• Assuming someone who already held a title cannot receive another: Article 3(iii) allows it if the new family nucleus qualifies, and failing that, at fair market value.
• Paying notarial or Registry fees: Article 7 exempts both the public deed and the certification.
• Looking for the requirements in the Act: Article 2 refers them to the Secretary’s regulation, which we did not read.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de la Vivienda

  Vivienda

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov