2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 7 - Municipal Property Tax (§§ 5001 — 6756) › PART I (§§ 5001 — 5252) › Chapter 245 - Attachment, Sale and Redemption of Property (§§ 5101 — 5120) › § 5103 - Attachment and sale of debtor’s assets—Sale of personal property; exemptions

The sale of personal property for the payment of taxes shall be done at public auction and if some parts could be separated or split from others, only the amount or part of said attachable personal property that is strictly necessary for the payment of all taxes, interest, penalties and costs shall be sold. It shall be understood that the above condition has been met with the amount of said attachable personal property whose appraised value is sufficient to cover, with the adjudication price at a third auction, the probable total tax debt and its interest, surcharges, penalties and costs, in said third auction. Prior to the start of the personal property sale at public auction, the Collection Center or its representative will proceed to appraise the aforesaid. The sale of the personal property shall be done at a public auction not to be held before thirty (30) nor after sixty (60) days after the attachment has been executed, fixing as the minimum adjudication rate for the first auction seventy-five percent (75%) of the appraised amount set by the Collection Center. Should the first auction not produce competitive bidding or an adjudication, a minimum of sixty percent (60%) of the appraisal value set by the Collection Center for said properties will serve as the minimum rate for the second auction held. Should the second auction not produce competitive bidding or an adjudication and should it be necessary to hold a third or other successive auctions, fifty percent (50%) of the value of the appraisal that the Collection Center set for such personal properties will serve as the minimum rate for such a third or other successive auctions. Should there be no competitive bidding or adjudication at any of these auctions, the Collection Center may adjudicate itself the attached personal property for the minimum rate of appraisal which corresponds to the auction by which the property is to be adjudicated. When the personal property is adjudicated to a third party, as well as when it is adjudicated to the Collection Center, the proceeds of the sale of such property will be devoted to the payment of the tax debt. In case the property is adjudicated to the Collection Center, it will issue and deliver to the taxpayer a credit note for a sum equal to the difference between the adjudication price and the tax debt being collected. This credit note shall be sufficient for the future cancellation of an equal amount owed by the same taxpayer on account of property taxes. In the case of an adjudication to a third party, the remainder, if any, will be delivered by the Collection Center to the taxpayer. Should the amount obtained at the auction be insufficient to cancel the tax debt, the Collection Center shall collect from said delinquent taxpayer the amount of the tax which is not covered, with its surcharges and interest, as soon as it has knowledge that said delinquent taxpayer has and owns attachable real and personal property, in which case the legal proceeding for debt collection established by law shall be instituted against him/her for collection of the difference. Real properties related to the homestead exemptions established by § 1130 of Title 32, shall be exempted from being sold for nonpayment of taxes.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 83, § 4.03.