2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 11 - Department of Health (§§ 171 — 206) › § 181 - Inspections and investigations; public places; private dwellings

(a) The Secretary of Health or his/her authorized representatives, are hereby empowered to enter any building, house, shop or place at any hour of the day, to inspect and report on the sanitary conditions thereof, or to cause the prompt removal or correction of any public nuisance, in the form and manner prescribed in the sanitary regulations. The Secretary may likewise order the closing of any building, house, shop, or place, or similar establishment, when he/she confirms that the sanitary conditions thereof or the way that they operate, present an imminent public health problem. Likewise, and without impairing the power of the Secretary or his/her authorized representatives to close any building, house, shop, or place when they do not meet the minimum health requirements, the Secretary shall be empowered to impose fines on the owners, agents or persons in charge thereof for deficiencies in the sanitary conditions and requirements of said places, in accordance with § 187 of this title. Before proceeding to issue any of the penalties provided by this section, the owner, agent or person in charge of the building, house, shop, or place shall be notified by certified mail with receipt requested of the deficiencies found and shall be granted a reasonable period of time to correct them. Furthermore, he/she shall be advised that if he/she does not agree with the decision of the Secretary or his/her authorized representatives within fifteen (15) days from the date the notice was deposited in the mail, he/she may request the Secretary, and he/she shall be bound to grant a hearing to show cause as to why the penalties imposed should not be enforced. The owner, agent, or person in charge of the specific building, house, shop, or place, may appeal the decision of the Secretary to the Circuit Court of Appeals of Puerto Rico through an appeal to review, within the term of thirty (30) days following the issue thereof, without said action being understood to lift the penalty imposed. Except in those cases of extremely urgent or emergency situations, the inspections or investigations of the abovementioned structures shall only be performed with the prior permission of the legal occupant of the structure that will be inspected. If said occupant refuses to give permission for the inspection, any magistrate, upon receiving a sworn statement that there is probable cause therefor, may issue an order authorizing said official to enter said structure to perform the investigation or inspection; Provided, That nothing that is contained in the present shall be limited in the sense of barring the right of the Secretary or his/her authorized representatives to enter the buildings, houses, shops, stores factories, restaurants, cafés and other places, except private living quarters, without previously obtaining permission from the owner or lodger, provided that the entering is done in good faith by the official with the purpose of making investigations or inspections that promote the public health.
(b) The Secretary of Health is hereby empowered to recover from the owner of said buildings, houses, shops, or places, the reasonable costs and expenses needed to implement the provisions of this section. The Secretary of Health shall establish the terms and conditions regarding the implementation of said subsection through regulations.
(c) Furthermore, the Secretary is empowered to establish, through regulations to such effect, the amount of the fees to be charged for the inspections performed by the Deputy Secretary of Environmental Health, of any commercial, industrial or professional establishment, regarding compliance of the requirements of the sanitary regulations in effect. Any monies recovered or collected under the provisions of this section by the Department of Health or its authorized representatives shall be deposited in a special fund that shall be known as the “Environmental Health Fund”, which amounts shall be destined to the various sanitary inspection programs.
History —Mar. 14, 1912, No. 81, p. 122, § 30; July 23, 1974, No. 240, Part 2, p. 227, § 1; Mar. 26, 1999, No. 101, § 1.