In short
A servitude is the limited real right falling on one plot — the servient one — for the benefit of another plot or of one or several identified persons or a community; where the relation is between plots, the one receiving the benefit is called dominant. That benefit may consist of a determined use of the servient plot or of a reduction of its holder’s faculties. The Code classifies them in three ways that decide everything else: continuous or discontinuous, depending on whether the use may be incessant without human intervention or depends on human acts; apparent or non-apparent, depending on whether they are announced by exterior signs; and positive or negative, depending on whether they impose bearing the exercise or abstaining from something. The classification matters because only continuous and apparent ones can be won by usucapión, and it takes fifteen years; continuous non-apparent ones and all discontinuous ones, apparent or not, may be created only by juridical act. They are inseparable from the plot and indivisible: if the servient plot is divided, the servitude is not modified; if the dominant one is divided, each sharer may use it in full without altering the place of its use. On an undivided plot the consent of all co-owners is needed, and a grant by some is suspended until the last one grants it.
What is it?
They are Sections One and Two of Chapter III of Title VI of Book Three of the Civil Code of 2020, Articles 935 to 947. They set what a servitude is, how it is classified, who may constitute one and by what routes it comes into being.
Who can do it?
Servitudes may be constituted by holders of ownership or of possessory real rights over the dominant or the servient plot. Where a holder of possessory real rights constitutes one, it has the scope and duration of those rights.
Requirements
- To win it by usucapión, that the servitude be continuous and apparent and be possessed for fifteen years.Verified against the official source
- For continuous non-apparent ones and all discontinuous ones, a juridical act: there is no other route.Verified against the official source
- On an undivided plot, the consent of all the co-owners.Verified against the official source
- For a servitude on one’s own land published only by an apparent sign to survive a sale, that it be expressly stated in the title of transfer.Verified against the official source
- For creation by judgment, that it be a forced servitude and that the person obliged refuse to constitute it voluntarily.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: Two plots, or a plot and a person
Article 935 defines a servitude as the limited real right falling on one plot, the servient one, for the benefit of another plot or of one or several identified persons or a community. Where the relation is between plots, the one receiving the benefit is called dominant. And the benefit can run in two directions: granting a determined use of the servient plot, or reducing its holder’s faculties.
Step 2: The three classifications that decide everything else
Article 937 crosses them. Continuous is one whose use is or may be incessant without human intervention; discontinuous one used at longer or shorter intervals and depending on human acts. Apparent is one announced and continuously in view through exterior signs objectively related to the use and enjoyment; non-apparent one shown by no sign. Positive is one obliging the servient holder to bear its exercise; negative one imposing a determined abstention.
Step 3: Only two of those categories can be won by time
Article 945 restricts it: continuous and apparent servitudes are created by juridical act or by usucapión of fifteen years. Article 946 closes the door on the rest: continuous non-apparent ones and discontinuous ones, apparent or not, may be created only by juridical act. A path used now and then and depending on human acts is discontinuous: it is not won by walking the track for years.
Step 4: When that period starts running
The same Article 945 separates them. In positive ones, from the day the dominant holder, or whoever has enjoyed the servitude, began to exercise it over the servient plot. In negative ones, from the day the dominant holder forbade the servient holder, by a formal obstructive act, the execution of what would be lawful without the servitude.
Step 5: What happens if the plot is split
Article 940 says servitudes are indivisible. If the servient plot is divided into two or more parts, the servitude is not modified, and each holder must tolerate it in their part. If it is the dominant plot that is divided, each sharer may use the servitude in full without altering the place of its use or burdening it otherwise. The article itself warns that physical modifications of the plots may lead to extinction in the cases of Article 966.
Step 6: Who has to sign
Article 941 empowers the holders of ownership or of possessory real rights over either plot, and warns that if a holder of possessory real rights constitutes it, the servitude has the scope and duration of those rights. Article 942 lets the owner constitute servitudes without the consent of holders of possessory rights over the plot, provided they are not prejudiced. And Article 943 requires, on an undivided plot, the consent of all the co-owners: a grant by only some is suspended until the last one grants it, though it binds whoever gave it not to impede its completion.
Step 7: Servitudes between your own plots, and the trap on selling
Article 936 allows constituting servitudes on one’s own or another’s plot, and even reciprocal ones between dominant and servient. Article 947 develops it: whoever holds several plots may constitute between them whatever servitudes they see fit. But it adds the warning that costs lawsuits: on transferring either plot, a servitude on one’s own land published only by the existence of an apparent sign survives only if it is expressly stated in the title of transfer.
Where to do it
A voluntary servitude is constituted in the corresponding title between the parties. Creation by judgment, which Article 944 reserves for forced ones where the person obliged refuses, goes before the Court of First Instance. The Civil Code designates no agency to constitute them.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
If your plot has no way out to the public road, the figure is the forced servitude of passage and it has its own guide. If the problem is a neighbour blocking the sun from your panels, Article 963 has one too. This guide does not cover Section Four, the forced servitudes: Article 954 itself says the other forced servitudes are governed by the special laws authorizing them, and we did not read those. Nor does it explain the general usucapión rules the fifteen-year period of Article 945 rests on. The Code publishes no cost and no term, so this guide gives none. MiPRFácil does not represent anyone in court and gives no legal advice.
Common mistakes
- Believing any servitude can be won with the years: only continuous and apparent ones, and at fifteen.
- Counting a negative servitude’s period from when the nuisance began instead of from the formal obstructive act.
- Constituting a servitude on an undivided plot with only some co-owners signing.
- Selling one of two of your own plots without putting the servitude in the deed: the apparent sign alone will not save it.
- Assuming that dividing the servient plot erases the servitude.
- Forgetting that a servitude constituted by a usufructuary or lessee lasts as long as their right does.
Frequently asked questions
Can I win a servitude by having used it for years?
Only if it is continuous and apparent, and with fifteen years of possession. Continuous non-apparent ones and all discontinuous ones, apparent or not, may be created only by juridical act.
Can there be a servitude between two plots of the same owner?
Yes. Article 936 allows it and 947 develops it. But on selling either one, a servitude published only by an apparent sign survives solely if it is expressly stated in the title of transfer.
If I divide my plot, what happens to the servitude?
They are indivisible. If the servient plot is divided, the servitude is not modified and each holder tolerates it in their part. If the dominant one is divided, each sharer may use it in full without altering the place of its use or burdening it otherwise.
Do all the owners have to sign?
On an undivided plot, yes: the consent of all the co-owners is needed. A grant by only some is suspended until the last one grants it, though it binds whoever gave it not to impede its completion.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico
Poder Judicial
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
Last verified
September 7, 2026
MiPRFácil is an independent informational website and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Government of Puerto Rico or any government agency.
MiPRFácil does not submit applications on your behalf.
Was this guide helpful?
Did you find out-of-date information?
Your land has no road access: the right of way
Anyone without sufficient access to a public road can demand passage from their neighbours. And if a split left the plot landlocked, no indemnity is owed.
Who maintains a servitude and who may move it
Expenses fall on whoever benefits, the servient owner included if they gain from it. Moving the servitude is paid by whoever wants it moved.
When a servitude is lost and how it is cancelled
Fifteen years of non-use extinguish it. And if all its benefit disappears it does not revive, even if it later becomes useful again.
Something shaded your solar panels: the right to solar and wind energy
The 2020 Code gives you a right to the sun and wind reaching your land, bans shading a neighbour with trees, and voids any agreement limiting it.
You do not know where your land ends: fixing and marking boundaries
A deslinde fixes blurred boundaries and amojonamiento marks them. The action never prescribes, but a neighbour can still gain ground by prescription.
Property Registry: how to request a registry certification
The two kinds of certification the Registry issues, the 60-day deadline the law sets, and what to do if the registrar does not issue it.