Puerto Rico Property,
Inheritance & Divorce Law
Inheritance & Divorce Law
National Law Firm
Serving U.S. Clients
Serving U.S. Clients in Need of Puerto Rico Legal Services
Puerto Rico Real Estate, Probate, and Divorce Lawyers
Welcome to Boricua Legal, our online portal. We are a decentralized, multi-state law firm that has actively represented clients in Puerto Rico since 2008. We pride ourselves on being responsive and professional. We use our extensive collective legal knowledge (over 30 years) to attack your Puerto Rico legal issue as quickly and effectively as possible. We don’t shy away from complex cases. Given our legal experience, we usually get cases too hard for others to handle. We are here to assist you and help you solve your legal problem as quickly and economically as possible. Because of our responsiveness and our emphasis on communication (our clients can text us, call us, and they can make appointments to talk to us automatically via a dedicated link), you will be informed of what is going on with your case at every stage. We are here for you.
At Boricua Legal, all our lawyers are licensed in Puerto Rico and other places (such as California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida & Texas). We are a U.S.-based law firm with lawyers physically on the ground in Puerto Rico, ready to serve our client’s legal needs. Our firm has approximately half its lawyers physically on the Island of Puerto Rico, ready to assist you and your family with your Puerto Rico property or legal needs. Our firm’s principal attorneys have a team of lawyers they direct on the ground in Puerto Rico. Our local Puerto Rico lawyers do much of the legwork in the cases, so you won’t have to do it. We also serve our continental U.S. clients with cases from our Massachusetts headquarters (New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and California).
Practice Areas:
Our firm has three different practice groups: Inheritance Law (probate/ when someone passes away and leaves something on the island), Real Estate Law (Issues involving property such as the sale of an apartment or house in Puerto Rico, or title clearing), Puerto Rico Divorce Law (dissolution of marriage cases or child custody cases in Puerto Rico).
Why Boricua Legal:
Because we are a U.S. law firm, we have all the systems and procedures you would generally find in a U.S. law firm. Most of our firm is cloud-based. You may upload your documents, communicate with our Puerto Rico lawyers, and book meetings through the cloud. Our clients communicate with us via email, text, and videoconferencing (Zoom, Google Hangout, Facetime, WhatsApp) for their convenience. More importantly, we adhere to the highest professional standards following the rules that operate in the continental United States. As such, we prioritize communication, professionalism, and responsiveness in everything we do.
Some Puerto Rico-based lawyers adhere to laxer communication and work standards. We call it “island time”. But our Puerto Rico lawyers work on “U.S. time.” We follow up, we follow through, and from our end, we don’t let cases linger needlessly and endlessly as others do. That is our guiding principle, and together with our multi-state experience, we offer the service our clients expect and want.
Don’t trust your case to anyone else; call us now to see if we can help you solve your legal needs for real estate, inheritance, or divorce in Puerto Rico.
U.S. Law + Puerto Rico Law:
One of the reasons our firm is different from other lawyers in Puerto Rico is our experience in both the U.S.-based legal system (also known as Common Law) and Puerto Rico law (based on the Spanish Civil Law system). We have been working with U.S. and Puerto Rico laws since 2008. They are both very different systems. Often, legal concepts don’t fully translate to the other, and vice versa. More in-depth knowledge is needed to bridge these gaps and differences to achieve the goal you are looking for or to avoid more significant problems later on. For example, in one case, the previous lawyer (only licensed in Puerto Rico) advised their client to sell a house in Florida and bring the proceeds to Puerto Rico “in accordance with Puerto Rico law.” They didn’t know that property and probate law in Florida disposed of that property differently, and it had been assigned to one person, not the surviving heirs. In that case, the house didn’t belong to the heirs or the estate but to one person. That caused an incredible amount of litigation and expense to the client. As you can see, real-world experience with the two systems is essential to properly managing a case like this.
If you live in the continental U.S. but have a legal issue in Puerto Rico, you must have legal representation that understands both. You don’t want a scenario where a Puerto Rico lawyer works on your case to find out later what they did hurt you in the U.S.
Responsiveness:
We pride ourselves on being different from other Puerto Rican lawyers. We follow up, and we chase leads. Even if the Puerto Rico court or agency takes a long time, we don’t let the case linger because we follow up. By being proactive, we let them know that someone is paying attention to the case so it doesn’t languish any longer than it has to. We work so you don’t have to.
Professionalism:
Because we are a U.S.-based firm, our lawyers are more responsive and more professional. Not only because it is good practice but also because it is required of us by U.S. regulations. To be in good standing in other states, we practice in and to meet our professional requirements under U.S. law, we subscribe to and follow the American Bar Association Rules of Professionalism and Ethics. That imposes a different standard of professionalism and responsiveness than in Puerto Rico. We have followed these professional and ethical principles since our Puerto Rico lawyers began representing clients in Puerto Rico in 2008.
If you need a lawyer in Puerto Rico for Inheritance Law, Probate Law, Divorce, Estate Management, and Real Estate matters, contact us via telephone or text at (855)-589-5295. Our Puerto Rico Lawyers offer the highest levels of professionalism and expertise, with cultural awareness, and empathy. We represent clients who reside on the mainland (Continental U.S.) and have legal issues in Puerto Rico. All our Puerto Rico Lawyers speak English and Spanish and are readily available to respond to your covered legal needs. That way, you can feel safe and reach us without the language barrier, distance, and communication delays others face on the island.
Contact our Puerto Rico Lawyers to see what options you have. Our Puerto Rico Lawyers can help and represent you with diligence and cost-effective solutions for your case. We want to help you and relieve you of the stress that could come with a legal matter in Puerto Rico.
FAQs
Can I Use a “Quit Claim Deed” or “Warranty Deed” to Transfer or Sell My Puerto Rico Property?
The short answer is no. Quit claim deeds and warranty deeds are legal documents used to transfer property in many states in the continental U.S. or the common law system. Puerto Rico does not subscribe to this type of procedure, so quit claim deeds are ineffective for transferring property on the island.
To transfer property in Puerto Rico, you must follow Puerto Rico law, even when drafting your will in the state where you live. Many times, a special document drafted by a notary attorney in Puerto Rico is required. In Puerto Rico, all notaries must be lawyers. They draft a special document called an "escritura," which is registered in a Puerto Rico Property Registry. The "escritura" must meet Puerto Rico Notary Law requirements to register in the Property Registry properly.
What Happens if the House in Puerto Rico Was Owned by My Mother or Father Who Died? What Are the Next Steps?
The next step in this scenario is to see if the estate of the person that passed, known in the U.S. as decedent and in Puerto Rico as "causante," has been probated (or resolved/distributed) or needs to be probated. The probate process generally means the estate has been distributed and no longer exists. This could be done via a Last Will and Testament by following the instructions set out there, usually with the help of a notary attorney in Puerto Rico, or via a court process that oversees the estate until it is ultimately settled and distributed. Several agencies must also be involved in fully settling an estate, including the taxing authority in Puerto Rico, known as "Hacienda." If multiple people were heirs or were interested in the estate, and they have passed away, then their estate must also be probated. Before you can sell a property that belonged to someone who passed away, their estate needs to be probated, accounted for, and cleared in a legal process in Puerto Rico.
Once the probate process is done for each owner who passed away, you can sell.
How Can I Sell a House or Apartment in Puerto Rico?
The answer depends on the property's title holder or owner as registered in the Registry of Property in Puerto Rico. If you purchased the property alone and are single, you can close the sale without any problems or complications. But if you bought it with someone else or purchased it while you were married or when the seller had a spouse, even if they don't appear on the title, then Puerto Rico imposes extra steps to clear the title and sell the property. As a matter of public policy, Puerto Rico law provides safeguards when selling a property that belongs to a married couple or a marital partnership, "sociedad de bienes gananciales."
Puerto Rico follows community property. It is a different system than in many places in the United States. In general terms, this means that everything spouses acquire during the marriage, assets, and liabilities, goes into one "pot." It all belongs to the marital partnership or “sociedad de bienes gananciales.” Both spouses are equal owners of this partnership, meaning both must appear at a sale. If one of the spouses has died, then that spouse's estate must be probated, or the estate must appear via its representatives for the sale to go through. Therefore, the sale of property can be complicated sometimes. It is essential to see if the property you wish to transfer or sell can be sold outright or if it needs to go through a separate legal process. Call us now to make an appointment to discuss the details right away (855) 589-5295.
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Puerto Rico Address (By appointment only)
Urb. Reparto Metropolitano
1228 Calle 52 SE
1228 Calle 52 SE
San Juan, PR 00921-3129
Toll Free: (855) 589-5295
By Appointment Only
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