Puerto Rico’s Legal System

Puerto Rico’s legal system is quite different from other jurisdictions in the United States. The differences are particularly notable concerning civil matters (known as civil law), particularly in areas related to inheritance, family, and real estate law.

The new Civil Code of 2020, revoked 1930, based on Spanish Code. Difference is Anglo law that is based on caselaw, matters keep evolving as they are resolved by cases. There is not a body of law, like the Civil Code, that brings together all the themes and theories of the law. However, in the 20th century, Puerto Rican law began evolving, incoreporating decisions of the PR Supreme Court as a source of the law. So in the present you have the Civil Code as the main body of law and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court decisions that interpret and expand the law.

The new Civil Code became effective in November 2020. However, it provides that in case of persons deceased before that date, the 1930 Civil Code still applies. Therefore, in the present we have to deal with both codes. One of the first questions we ask our clients is is the date of death, to determine immediately what body of law we apply. However, there are gray areas still to be resolved. For example, what happens when a person dies after November xx, 2020, but executed a Will before that date. Is the Will not valid because it does not follow the distribucions of the new law? Those are technical questions that we need to address in your representation.

Deeds in Puerto Rico (“Escrituras”)

At our law firm we get a lot of calls regarding deeds. There is a confusion regarding Puerto Rico deeds. In Puerto Rico, the only documents that can transfer a property to someone else (selling, gifting or donating, exchanging, etc.) are notarized deeds or public documents. The Registry of Property, the agency in Puerto Rico that handles property records, will only admit Puerto Rico notarized documents to transfer property from one party to another. These deeds need to be drafted by a Puerto Rico Notary Public. At the very least, the document must be incorporated in a notary book and given validity under Puerto Rico law.

To sell a property, house, apartment or lot, a notary public will draft the documents, register them in their book, and pay the government fees associated with the notarized document. When someone drafts a document outside of Puerto Rico, a notary public has to prepare and validate that document under Puerto Rico law. That is what’s called “protocolizar”, which means to bring it within the notary law and register it in a notary book. Documents that transfer property have to comply with the law in Puerto Rico. This means that “quit claim deeds’ ‘ or other “deeds” that transfer property in another state are not valid in Puerto Rico. This is a common misconception when dealing with Puerto Rico Real Estate law. We have represented many professional companies, lawyers and public accountants and the first question they have is, “I have a quit claim deed and I need to register it in Puerto Rico.” It is our job to inform them that they have to go through the whole process of drafting the document again. This time the document has to be drafted under Puerto Rico Real Estate Law, and then it has to be executed by a notary public on the island. There are some limited exceptions but the general rule is that the signatures that authorize a transfer of property need to be taken on Puerto Rico soil. This complicates matters quite a bit and has prompted many signings on the “road” such as the airport or in hotel lobbies. But the fact of the matter remains that if someone wants to sell, or transfer a property that is located in Puerto Rico, they have to go through a notary public.