2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY - Mortgage Law and Regulations (§§ 1-5 — 5005) › Subtitle 4 - Mortgage and Property Registry Act of 1979; General Provisions (§§ 2001 — 2821) › Chapter 123 - Concordance Between Record and Legal Reality; Registration of Property (§§ 2761 — 2777) › § 2762 - Ownership without recordable title; proof of ownership—Evidence to justify

Any owner who lacks a recordable ownership title, regardless of when the acquisition occurred, may record said ownership by justifying it through the following formalities:
First.— He/she shall file a sworn statement with the Court of First Instance Part of the territory in which the property is located, or in the territory where its main portion is located if it is a property located in several territorial demarcations, which shall have exclusive jurisdiction. If the statement is filed with a Part without jurisdiction, it shall provide for it to be forwarded to the corresponding Part without request of either party. Said statement shall contain the following allegations:
(1) The name and other personal data of the applicant and his spouse, if any, at the time of acquiring ownership of the property and at the time of making the application, if they are different.
(2) In compliance with the first rule of § 2308 of this title, an exact description of the property with its boundaries and dimensions according to the titles submitted, if any, and if a survey was made, the resultant area and boundaries. If the property was formed by grouping, each of the integrated properties must also be described, and if it was formed by segregation, the main property from which it was segregated must be described.
(3) The code number as it appears in the Bureau of Assessment of the Department of the Treasury.
(4) The fact that the property, or constituent properties in the case of a grouping, does not appear recorded in the Property Registry.
(5) A list of the encumbrances on the property, if any, and if not, the fact that it is free of encumbrances.
(6) A list of the known previous owners with a statement on the personal data of the immediately previous owner.
(7) The way it was acquired from the immediately previous owner.
(8) The length of time he and the previous owners possessed the property publicly, peacefully, continuously, and as owners.
(9) The fact that the property, or in the case of a merger, those which compose it, with their alleged present dimensions, has maintained the same configuration during the terms provided by §§ 5278 and 5280 of Title 31, so that the effects of adverse possession may remain in force, or in default thereof, that the same is a segregation from a larger property, whose segregation was duly approved by the Planning Board of Puerto Rico or by the corresponding government agency. A title of ownership on an undivided portion of an unsegregated plot of land shall not constitute fair title.
(10) The present value of the property.
(11) The legal proof to be presented.
(12) Other allegations which, by law, may be in order in each case.
Second.— The petitioner shall notify, personally or by certified mail with a copy of his/her document to the mayor of the municipality where the property is located, the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works, the District Attorney, and the persons owning the abutting properties. The court shall order that the immediately previous owner or his/her heirs, if they are known, be summoned personally if the conveyance does not appear in a public document, and those having any real right on said property; and it shall summon those unknown persons whom the requested registration could injure, by means of an edict that shall be published three (3) times within twenty (20)-day period in a daily newspaper of general circulation in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, so that they may appear if they wish to claim their rights. If the petitioners are heirs, the person from whom the predecessor in title acquired the property shall be understood to be the immediately previous owner.
If those who are to be personally summoned are absent from Puerto Rico and their whereabouts are known, they shall be summoned by the same edict and when the first publication of the edict is made, they shall be sent a copy of the summons by certified mail to their known address, with a return receipt requested. If their whereabouts are unknown and it so proven, they shall be summoned only by means of said edict.
Third.— During the unextensible term of twenty (20) days staring from the date of the last publication of the edict, the interested parties, the mayor or his/her authorized representative of the municipality where the property is located, the District Attorney and the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works or his/her authorized representative, or in their absence, the public agencies affected, may appear before the court in order to allege whatever may be advantageous to their rights.
Fourth.— The intervention of the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works or, in his/her absence, of the public agencies affected, shall be limited to sustaining the defense of any rights existing in favor of the State. The intervention of the mayor of the municipality where the property is located shall be limited to sustaining the defense of any existing rights in favor of the municipality in question. In addition, the Department of Justice shall see that the law is duly complied with.
Fifth.— Prior to scheduling the hearing on its merits, the petitioner shall include, together with the judicial record, a negative certificate accrediting that the property which is subject to the proceeding is not registered in the name of a person other than the petitioner. Said negative certificate shall be issued by the Registrar of the competent Section on a date no later than fifteen days prior to presenting or filing the petition.
History —Mortgage Law, 1979, § 237; June 14, 1980, No. 143, p. 535; Aug. 6, 1993, No. 64, §§ 1-3; Jan. 1, 1998, No. 1, § 1; July 27, 2007, No. 77, § 1.