2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-EIGHT - Public Lands (§§ 1 — 737) › PART I - Lands Generally; Mines (§§ 1 — 226) › Chapter 1 - Sale or Lease of Public Lands (§§ 1 — 31o) › § 31a - Disposal and lease of property or buildings no longer of public use—Reacquisition

Natural persons or their heirs, as well as [juridical] persons, whose property has been expropriated or from whom property has been otherwise acquired by any department, agency, instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or municipality, shall have the preferential right to reacquire their property when the titleholder thereof decides to alienate, in whole or in part, the property thus acquired that ceased to be of public utility. This preferential right may not be transferred to other natural or [juridical] persons. Those who have been legally occupying property for over five (5) years and have established their sole residence therein shall have a second place preferential right. Any of the heirs of those with a second place preferential right who have no home of their own, or should those fail to exercise their rights, any other heir, shall have a third place preferential right. The owners of adjoining property or any of the members of an adjoining succession or the owners of adjoining communal property shall have a fourth place preferential right. At the time of the acquisition the titleholder shall notify the owner of the property that has been expropriated or otherwise acquired, as well as the devisees or assignees, when applicable, as to the scope of §§ 31—31o of this title.
In cases of partial alienation of property acquired be it by expropriation or otherwise the result of which is a piece of real property whose surface or shape does not adjust to the requirements of the Planning Board or has no access to a public highway, the preferential right to acquire such land shall fall on the owners of the adjoining properties or any of the members of a succession or the owners of adjoining communal property. The provisions of §§ 31—31o of this title shall not impair the preferential right acquired by the prior owners or the owners of adjoining properties in the case of transactions effected pursuant to Act No. 182 of May 5, 1949, as amended.
Should several adjoining owners or members of a succession or owners of communal property, as the case may be, be interested in acquiring the property, priority to do so shall fall on the adjoining owner who first filed his/her application in writing and should said application have been filed simultaneously with others, it shall be granted pursuant to the regulations of the Planning Board and on equal footing through a drawing before a notary public.
When a property that has been donated to the Government no longer serves a public use, those persons who have donated said property to any department, agency, corporation or any other instrumentality of the Government of Puerto Rico or municipality, as well as their heirs or successors, shall be entitled to have said property reverted to them free of charge. If there should be a building or improvement, the same shall be appraised and the cost of the same shall be paid to the Government of Puerto Rico or its instrumentality before reverting the title deed. Those interested in exercising this right may avail themselves to the procedure provided for in §§ 31b and 31c of this title or they may request the reversion of the properties to the corresponding agency, which upon approval of the Governor and recommendation of the Secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Justice, or the express authorization of the Legislature, shall transfer the title deed of said properties to the donors. The action that issues under this provision shall prescribe fifteen (15) years after the time the property is no longer a public property.
History —Dec. 10, 1975, No. 12, p. 964, § 2; July 2, 1987, No. 82, p. 291, § 2; Aug. 18, 1989, No. 76, p. 336, § 2; Dec. 24, 1991, No. 122, § 2; Sept. 1, 2000, No. 286, § 1.